Samuel Charles Allsopp, 'Burton Beer'

Leslie Ward ('Spy') caricatures Samuel Charles Allsopp, Conservative MP and scion of the great Burton-on-Trent brewing dynasty, under the sardonic caption 'Burton Beer' — a joke that conflates the man entirely with his family's commercial product. Ward renders Allsopp in profile as a magnificently rotund figure: top hat, checked trousers, a lit cigar trailing smoke, and a walking cane bearing much of the weight. The belly is the compositional center, a pointed comment on prosperous indulgence. The red-gold beard is pushed to mild comic excess but falls within Ward's standard repertoire rather than ethnic caricature. The plate's politics are gently Tory-skeptical: inherited wealth and the brewery trade had bought a parliamentary seat, and Ward makes sure the viewer never forgets which commodity paid for it.