Thomas Gibson Bowles ('Tommy'), Vanity Fair, 1889

Signed by Spy (Leslie Ward), this chromolithograph caricatures Thomas Gibson Bowles, founder of Vanity Fair itself — a rare instance of the magazine turning its lens on its own proprietor. The caption reads simply 'Tommy', his familiar nickname. Ward renders Bowles in confident three-quarter stance: black frock coat, top hat, extravagant blond walrus moustache, one hand on hip, the other gripping a folded garment and a cane. The silhouette is slightly top-heavy, the head enlarged in the caricaturist's standard mode, but the treatment is affectionate rather than savage — Bowles was, after all, the boss. As a Conservative MP and press entrepreneur, he embodied the self-made Victorian gentleman, and Ward captures precisely that self-satisfied swagger.