| Reference number | VF/25 |
| Alternative reference number | VF25 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Portrait of John Lubbock by Sir Leslie Ward |
| Artist | Ward, Leslie ['Spy'] |
| Vincent Brooks Day & Son |
| Date | 23 February 1878 |
| Description | Vanity Fair cartoon titled 'The Bank Holiday' featuring John Lubbock seated on a settle, his top hat beside him. Left profile. A raised hand in a shield appears in the top right hand corner. Number 267 of the 'Statesmen' series. |
| InscriptionContent | Recto inscription: 'VANITY FAIR Feby 23 1878/ Vincent Brooks Day & Son. Ltd./ “The Bank Holiday”’ |
| Caption | Statesmen. No. 267.
Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P.
Sir John Lubbock is a man of mark. His father was a banker and an astronomer; he is an entomologist , a politician, and a banker. He was saved from Eton at an early age to begin banking in Lombard Street, which enabled him to begin archaeology and natural history in Kent; and at one-and-thirty he found himself a well-to-do fourth baronet. Hereupon he took to politics, and after five years' practice and two defeats, was elected to the House of Commons five years ago by the borough of Maidstone, for which he stills sits.
Sir John is the model man of the time. He is a member of many learned societies, he is supposed to be rich; he has published some of the most successful of those books that nobody reads, and consequently is a member of the Athanaeum Club; and withal he has a tender love for flowers, children, wasps, clerks, and the rest of the smaller creation. He is a very honest, hard-working savant, and of necessity somewhat pretentious in a harmless way. He would seem to have caught rather than to have conceived his notions of public policy, and he has come to essay statesmanship laden with all the baggage of doctrine which pert young philosophers have invented as specifics likely to find a ready sale in the market-place. Though a believer in the doctrine of Natural Selection, he believes also in Universal Competitive Examination; though a man of much application, he has been made famous as "St. Lubbock" for the Bank Holiday Bill, by which he endowed the country with four compulsory days of idleness a year and thus diminished the work without improving the morals of the community. He has made himself known as a naturalist, and it may be that he will yet become a statesman. Meantime he is a Liberal and aspires to become Chancellor of the Exchequer. |
| Format | Lithograph |
| Physical description | Coloured lithograph on paper, mounted on card |
| Dimensions | 380mm x 263mm |
| Notes | Text is accompanying article from "Vanity Fair" (by Jehu Junior?) |
| Access status | Open |
| Copyright | The Royal Society |
| Provenance | Purchased by the Royal Society from Patrick Pollak Antiquarian & Rare Books, September 1999 |
| Related material | Colour transparency, Box N101. IM/002821 |
| Related records in the catalogue | IM/002821 |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | Name | Dates |
| NA5949 | Lubbock; John (1834 - 1913); 1st Baron Avebury | 1834 - 1913 |