Lord Hardwicke — 'High Political Office'

Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') caricatures Charles Yorke, 5th Earl of Hardwicke, in profile, inflating his already considerable girth into a near-spherical silhouette. The Earl stands in morning dress — black frock coat, cream trousers, white gloves, a boutonnière — topped by a stovepipe hat and gripping a cane with patrician ease. A noble crown device appears upper right, underlining his rank. The caption 'High political office' is dryly ironic: Hardwicke had held the Lords-in-Waiting post and the Postmaster-Generalship, respectable but hardly towering. Pellegrini's joke is physical: the rotundity of the man quietly mocks the grandeur of the title. No ethnic caricature is operative here; the comedy is purely one of social pomposity meeting an ample waistline.