Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava

Signed by the less-celebrated 'ATn' (Alfred Thompson rather than the usual Spy or Ape), this chromolithograph presents Lord Dufferin — diplomat, poet, and future Viceroy of India — as *Statesmen No. 46*. He stands between two upholstered benches suggesting the Lords chamber, holding a folded paper and gesturing with one finger: the orator caught mid-argument. The caption, *'An exceptional Irishman,'* is double-edged Victorian wit: Dufferin was Anglo-Irish aristocracy, Protestant, Eton-educated — exceptional precisely because he confounded English prejudices about the Irish. The caricature exaggerates his long jaw and heavy-lidded eyes but avoids the simian distortions routinely applied to Catholic Irish figures in *Punch* of the same period. The baron's coronet in the upper corner underscores his peerage rather than his nationality.