Leslie Ward ('Spy') — 'Reggie' (Mr. R. H. Spooner)

Spy's chromolithograph presents Lancashire and England batsman Reginald Herbert Spooner in full cricket whites — loose shirt, padded trousers, buckled pads, spiked boots — holding a wooden bat at his side while his left hand rests on his hip with easy confidence. The caption reads simply 'Reggie.' with his formal name given below. Ward flatters more than he distorts: the subject's sharp profile and trim figure carry only a mild caricaturist's exaggeration. The plate is social endorsement rather than satire, typical of Vanity Fair's treatment of gentlemen-amateurs whose sporting celebrity confirmed class standing. Spooner, celebrated for elegant strokeplay, embodied the Edwardian ideal of the amateur cricketer — a point the portrait makes without irony.