[Rarebooks] fa: BALFOUR, CHAMBERLAIN, LORD SALISBURY, BOTTOMLEY FIRTH &c. - Original Caricatures

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, April 17. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/pz2yh7n

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain

Three original caricature drawings of late-Victorian British political figures:

"Bottomley Firth with City Aldermen." 1884 (title and date on verso). Artist unknown; original pen and ink drawing on heavy card stock, measuring ca. 165 x 120 mm. A cartoon clearly intended for publication, as the upper margin bears the penciled note, "Same size," and the verso bears a printer/engraver's ink stamp, the top half of which has been trimmed off so that the only extant part reads, "Zincographer, etc. 58 Farringdon Street, E.C." (presumably the firm of John Swain & Son). Joseph Firth Bottomley Firth (1842-1889) was a Liberal politician and MP and active campaigner for reform of local government in London.

"The Battle of Britain." [1896?]. Original pencil sketch (measuring 255 x 355 mm) depicting Lord Salisbury, Arthur Balfour and Joseph Chamberlain (in drag). Accompanied by a manuscript poem in ink (signed "Quisquis") regarding the General Election of 1895 which was won by Salisbury's Conservatives in alliance with the Liberal Unionist Party ("…Bible, Beer, & Peer agree / It was a a famous victory"). With references to golf, "wobblers' votes," the Duke of Devonshire, "Lunionists" (i.e. Liberal Unionists), etc.; Joseph Chamberlain is referred to throughout as "Josephine" ("And little Josephine looked up / With eyeglass in her eye…"). The sketch is signed in pencil "C. C. Henderson" at the bottom-right; at lower-left is the penciled monogram "C.H." and the year, "96." We're not sure of the significance of the "A [Arthur?] Rackham" signed at left, but perhaps this was intended as some kind of inside joke. It certainly doesn't appear to be the signature of the famous illustrator of that name.

"Mr. Arthur Balfour's Hobby." [1890s]. Original pencil sketch (measuring 255 x 355 mm), presumably by the same artist as the above, caricaturing Arthur Balfour (riding a golf club as a hobby-horse) and Lord Rosebery. The manuscript caption reads: "Rosebery (plaintively) 'Arthur has his hobby Why can't I have mine!!!'" Signed "C Henderson." Arthur Balfour (1848-1930), Conservative politician, Prime Minster from 1902-05. In the 1890s he served in the Salisbury government as First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons. Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), Liberal politician and Prime Minister from 1894-95.