About Vanity Fair.

Vanity Fair was published between 1864 and 1914 and treated eager Victorian and Edwardian readers to a weekly show of verbal and visual delights in England’s first successful Society Magazine.

Vanity Fair was the brain child of Thomas Gibson Bowles who launched the magazine on 7th November with just £200 of which half the capital was provided by colonel Frederick Burnaby, who himself was caricatured by “Spy” on 2nd December 1876.

The first few weeks of the magazine were difficult ones due not only to the lack of capital but also to the competition from other periodicals. In 1859 alone, more than one thousand five hundred periodicals were introduced in London to a reading public that continued to grow each year further stimulated by The National Education Act of 1870.

On the 30th January 1869, the first caricature of Benjamin Disraeli appeared and was an instant success. Vanity Fair was a sell out. Using the fairly new process of Chromolithography the portrait caricature ensured not only the immediate financial success of Vanity Fair but also the long life of the magazine.

2,386 caricatures appeared in Vanity Fair covering all walks of life. Most of the political, royal, literary, scientific, legal, theatrical, sporting, clerical and military figures of the day were covered by the artists of Vanity Fair.