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From the exhibition

John Somerset Pakington, 1st Baron Hampton

"ATn" Alfred Thompson · 12 February 1870

John Somerset Pakington, 1st Baron Hampton
Plate 92 of *Vanity Fair*, numbered Statesmen No. 40 and priced at sixpence, presents Sir John Somerset Pakington in full-length chromolithograph by Alfred Thompson ('ATn'). The caption reads: *'He was Chairman of Quarter Sessions and reconstructed the Navy.'* — a pointed summary of a career spanning county magistracy and two stints as First Lord of the Admiralty under Derby. Thompson renders the elderly Conservative peer in a tan stovepipe hat, dark frock coat, and striped trousers, furled red umbrella in hand — the uniform of Victorian respectability. The caricature exaggerates a heavy jowl and prominent nose in the mode of the period, stopping short of ethnic grotesquerie. The tone is gently satirical rather than hostile, befitting a Tory grandee the magazine treats with establishment deference.

"ATn" Alfred Thompson Public domain