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Tom Cannon by Leslie Ward
Public domain · digitally restored by ComicBooks.com
Men of the Day: The Vanity Fair Caricatures

Tom Cannon

Leslie Ward · Leslie Ward ('Spy'), *Vanity Fair*, 12 September 1885

The caption reads simply 'Tom Cannon', identifying the celebrated English jockey who won five Classic races. Spy depicts Cannon seated in a weighing-chair — the iron hoop-and-basket contraption used on racecourses to verify a jockey's weight before and after a race — holding a saddle across his lap and gripping the overhead bar with one raised hand. The pose is at once professional and slightly absurd, the chair substituting for the absent horse. Cannon wears full racing silks: red-and-cream striped jacket, cream breeches, and knee-high black boots. The likeness is gently exaggerated in the Spy manner — sharp chin, slight smirk — consistent with Vanity Fair's treatment of sporting heroes it admired.

About this artifact

Creator
Leslie Ward
Date
Leslie Ward ('Spy'), *Vanity Fair*, 12 September 1885
Rights
Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
Restoration
Digitally restored and hosted by ComicBooks.com.

Part of our mission to preserve and restore the public-domain heritage of the medium.