'Attorney-General' — John Holker

Ward's chromolithograph presents Holker in three-quarter profile, a portly figure in a dark frock coat and silk top hat, one hand tucked into a trouser pocket, a gold watch-chain looping across his waistcoat — the very image of prosperous Victorian legal authority. The caption reads simply 'Attorney-General', the office Holker held under Disraeli's Conservative government. The caricature's political charge is mild: Ward exaggerates Holker's considerable girth and fleshy jowls, satirising the comfortable corpulence associated with the successful barrister-turned-politician rather than attacking his policies. The plate belongs to Vanity Fair's running portrait-gallery of Establishment men, flattering as much as it mocks.