Estampes

1877 · rif. biblio358 — London: Vanity Fair june 9 1877. Fine. Chromolithography 265x395mm original proof impression Like new a small tear of 2 cm in the lower margin “The second versions of the Vanity Fair caricatures are the proof prints or proofs before lettering First versions are the original watercolors; third versions are the widely available weekly/album prints Produced to verify the colours and lines of the lithograph no more than twenty copies were printed Not true many more than that These prints have no captions or dates or other descriptive type and the magazine bound them in numbered albums in green leather with gilt tooling They were offered for sale and also awarded as prizes in the magazine’s acrostic contests At the front of each volume is a printed note from Vanity Fair giving the number of the proof volume and the numbered volume in the series However these volumes were "broken" to sell individually and one never sees the complete volume The quality of the colours in the proof prints their clarity of line and detail and their scarcity make them of considerable interest to the collector” Roy T Matthews and Peter Mellini In “Vanity Fair” Berkeley: University of California Press 1982 203 Vanity Fair hardcover