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| INTRODUCTION TO VANITY FAIR |
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What kind of magazine was Vanity Fair? It was like our Town and Country, New Yorker, and Harper's Bazaar all rolled into one. From 1869 to 1914, readers of the weekly issues of Vanity Fair could learn of the comings and goings of the royal family, enjoy wickedly humorous satire, learn the news of the week and the fashions of the moment. Each issue featured a caricature of a well-known personage. At first these comic colored portraits were a popular novelty, but eventually they became a British institution. These images set a style, formed a landmark in the development of mass color lithography, and constitute a unique visual record of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. In many cases, the Vanity Fair cartoon created the public's image of a celebrity.
In all, Vanity Fair published some 2400 cartoons. From 1869 to 1905 the caricatures were produced as original lithographs, printed in color. Each caricature appeared in three versions. First the artist created a watercolor sketch of the subject chosen for the satirical portrait. This cartoon was then transferred to lithographic stones and 20 copies were printed in color as "proofs" without text in order to check the quality of the line and color. The final finished lithograph was printed with text in the weekly magazine. Extra copies were printed and subsequently offered for sale as single prints. In addition, each print was printed again that same year and offered in the Vanity Fair Album for that year - a bound volume containing only the cartoons and their accompanying text.
From 1869 to 1873 the lithographs are printed on newsprint in limited color with the printers crossed lines at the corners. In 1874 the black border lines were eliminated, the color enhanced, the quality of the paper improved, and the magazine title and date appears at the top. In 1905 a fire destroyed both the publishing house and the lithographic stones. Subsequently the printing of Vanity Fair was moved to Holland, and from 1905 to 1911 the illustrations were produced on a slick glossy paper in an offset process. By this time interest in the magazine had also declined so that there are relatively few copies of cartoons from this period. As the decades ticked by, the caricatures, which originated as prints that were readily available for a few dollars, have become an increasingly scare commodity in the world art market.
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