1st Violin Duke of Edinburgh: 19th C. Vanity Fair Caricature by Ape (Pellegrini)
Vanity Fair color chromolithograph caricature of "First Violin " Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gothan by Ape (Carlo Pellegrini) Jan 10th 1874, "Princes" Number 2. Alfred Ernest Albert, (1844-1900) was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha between 1893 and 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. As a member of the British Royal family he was made the United Kingdom's Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster in 1866. He was offered the throne of Greece when he was only 21, but he turned it down. He survived an assassination attempt when he was 24 years old. He later married the Russian Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna. He was a Captain in the British Royal Navy and he also had a musical career, becoming first violin of the orchestra at Albert Hall in London.
Creator: Carlo Pellegrini (Ape) (1839 - 1889, Italian)
Creation Year: 1874
Dimensions: Height: 15 in (38.1 cm) Width: 10.25 in (26.04 cm)
Medium: Lithograph
Condition: See description below.
Vanity Fair color chromolithograph caricature of "First Violin " Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gothan by Ape (Carlo Pellegrini) Jan 10th 1874, "Princes" Number 2. Alfred Ernest Albert, (1844-1900) was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha between 1893 and 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. As a member of the British Royal family he was made the United Kingdom's Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster in 1866. He was offered the throne of Greece when he was only 21, but he turned it down. He survived an assassination attempt when he was 24 years old. He later married the Russian Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna. He was a Captain in the British Royal Navy and he also had a musical career, becoming first violin of the orchestra at Albert Hall in London.
Creator: Carlo Pellegrini (Ape) (1839 - 1889, Italian)
Creation Year: 1874
Dimensions: Height: 15 in (38.1 cm) Width: 10.25 in (26.04 cm)
Medium: Lithograph
Condition: See description below.
Vanity Fair color chromolithograph caricature of "First Violin " Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gothan by Ape (Carlo Pellegrini) Jan 10th 1874, "Princes" Number 2. Alfred Ernest Albert, (1844-1900) was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha between 1893 and 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. As a member of the British Royal family he was made the United Kingdom's Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster in 1866. He was offered the throne of Greece when he was only 21, but he turned it down. He survived an assassination attempt when he was 24 years old. He later married the Russian Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna. He was a Captain in the British Royal Navy and he also had a musical career, becoming first violin of the orchestra at Albert Hall in London.
Creator: Carlo Pellegrini (Ape) (1839 - 1889, Italian)
Creation Year: 1874
Dimensions: Height: 15 in (38.1 cm) Width: 10.25 in (26.04 cm)
Medium: Lithograph
Condition: See description below.
This chromolithograph is printed on thick paper with wide margins. There a small number of very faint small spots in the margins, but the print is otherwise in very good to excellent condition. The original text page with Prince Alfred's biography is included.
From 1868 until February 5, 1914, Vanity Fair, a weekly magazine of social, literary and political content, was very popular in Victorian and later, Edwardian England. The most popular of its features were the full page caricatures of famous men and women of the day which included their biographies, which remains the magazines lasting legacy. Vanity Fair's most famous artists were Carlo Pellegrini who signed his works “Ape” and Leslie Ward, known as “Spy”, but many other artists and writers contributed caricatures and prose to the publication, including Lewis Carroll, Willie Wilde, P. G. Wodehouse, Jessie Pope and Bertram Fletcher Robinson.
Thomas Gibson Bowles was the founder, owner, and editor of the magazine until 1889. He described the images as "grim faces made more grim, grotesque figures made more grotesque, and dull people made duller by the genius of our talented collaborator 'Ape'; but there is nothing that has been treated with a set purpose to make it something that it was not already originally in a lesser degree."
Carlo Pellegrini, contributed to the success of Vanity Fair in the early years. He was born and trained in Italy, but moved to London in 1864, at age 25. He was eccentric and soon became popular in British society. Pellegrini has been referred to as “the presiding artistic genius of Vanity Fair’s early years”. He signed his work with the pseudonym “Ape”, a reference to the ape-like features that he frequently used to characterize his subjects.
