carlo pellegrini

Oil on canvas- Carlo Pellegrini by Jules Bastien Lepage
Maxminimus photo

One of the greatest newspaper marketing ideas ever was Thomas Gibson Bowles' innovation of including a lithographic print of a prominent newsmaker in each weekly copy of Vanity Fair. They have since become known as SPY prints, for that was the non de art used by the prolific artist Leslie Ward when signing his art.

The first artist used by Bowles, and my favorite was Carlo Pelegrini who usually signed his work APE.  Today would be his birthday.

Ape- Carlo Pellegrini by AJM (Arthur Marks) in Vanity Fair 1889

This is my favorite Pellegrini print, of George Osborne made especially for the then Prince of Wales in 1865. It's one I'll save from the fire.

Toad

Odds and Ends

I. Car stuff:

Since I drive a car that is as likely to hurt me while it sits in the garage as while on the road, this falls into a "do as I say, not as I do" category. I have been a car guy most of my life. Mrs. T has just about broken me of it, but occasionally I still get revved up about a car. Also, I have long liked Volvo's, even the wagon we had in the mid '80's.

At the Chicago Auto Show, John Maloney president and CEO of Volvo North America pledged that NO ONE will be seriously injured or killed in a new Volvo by 2020.

When's the last time you heard a car company stick their neck out like that?

II. More Car News

From the Vanity Fair Daily Blog, an interview with Shaquille O'Neal about his first impulse purchase upon entering the NBA.

"Though no angel on the court, the man known as “the Diesel” or “the Big Aristotle” is gentle and amusing off it—and an impulsive shopper, no doubt. I asked him to relate the story of the time he bought three Bentleys on a whim.

“I was playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, and there’s a Rolls-Royce dealership in Beverly Hills. I always used to ride by it,” he began. “But one day I just went in. Mike Tyson was in there buying a couple of Bentleys. I had on some shorts and a tank top and flip-flops, and I said to the salesman, ‘Sir, how much does this one cost?’ He said, ‘Can you afford it, sonny boy?’ I was so upset that I bought three Bentleys right there on the spot.”

He was too tall, however, to fit into their driver’s seat. “A million dollars gone in 10 minutes,” he added, quite disapprovingly."

III. In a odd way this kinda sounds like fun

The town of Buford Wyoming is for sale.

"Unique opportunity to acquire an entire town, along with the Buford Trading post, an income-producing convenience and fuel store. Included in the auction are 10+/- acres of land, five buildings including a 3 bedroom home, United States post office boxes, plow and three vehicles. There is also a Union Wireless cellular tower with lease, and parking area previously used by an overnight shipping company for nighttime trailer switches."

The seller maintains 1000 people a day hit the Trading Post. The town also comes with its own zip code. Since there are no other residents, the zip is all yours. How cool is that?

Offers near (USD ) $100, 000 can make it yours. It's a shame that you'd probably have to live there full time, since if managed well this might actually pay off.

Toad

I shouldn't have hobbies

Hobbies are problematic for me, if left untended they become absorbing. I prefer to graze, a little bit here, a little bit there. Grazing fits my personality. My namesake, Toad, of Wind in the Willows fame, was a grazer as well.

I've long been (collector is too strong a word) an enthusiast of the original London weekly magazine, Vanity Fair's caricature prints. Often, the black and white lithographs could be found framed for a couple of dollars at flea markets or garage sales. They made for inexpensive wall coverings, and as long as I didn't know any better I was quite satisfied.


Knowledge, or its lack, can be a dangerous thing. Looking at the prints on my walls I became curious. Who were these people, why where they selected for publication? Roy T. Mathews and Peter Mellini wrote a book, In Vanity Fair, which answered just such questions. It has pride of place, an arms length away from where I write this.

When I found the sporting prints, which were printed in color, it was like discovering a new world. I search continually for them. Russell March has collected and written books about the sportsman Cricketers, and Jockeys while others collected and written about the Welsh subjects legal luminaries, and WF in South Africa. At least one artist, Leslie Ward, has written a book about his experiences at VF. There may be others. My bookshelves groan.

Johnie come lately that I am I've only recently discovered an new avenue for acquisition, the pre publication printers proof copies of the artist drawings. Before Christmas I had never considered them, now I have four. I love them not only for the subject matter, but for the boldness of the colors. I don't want them all, but when I see one, it must move me immediately. My taste may not be yours, but to paraphrase a Supreme Court Justice, "I know it when I see it."

The Shih Tzu in the arm of Admiral Lord Charles William De La Poer Beresford made this my first must have.

The Earl De Grey came next. A stylish gentleman certainly.

Another tangent I have mostly, carefully avoided are prints made my Vanity Fair artists for other outlets. I've only one very special drawing, which along with my Dickens, will be first saved in the fire.

Toad

Separated at Birth?

Jean Grimbert 2011

at Arny's Paris

photo by the Sartorialist

Lord De Grey

Vanity Fair 1890

artist: Leslie Ward (spy)

Two dashing gentlemen.

Toad

What I'll save from the fire

Remember Myspace? The drawing in this photo could be considered a very early prototype, an original put a face to a name.

The details have clouded over time, but the gist of the back story is that around 1869 the then Prince of Wales, later H.M. King Edward VII, Bertie to his friends and family, angry at a perceived slight by his club, left to form his own, the Marlborough Club, and invited his closest friends to join. It would have been difficult to refuse an invitation from your future sovereign.


In 1868 the London weekly magazine "Vanity Fair" began publishing. Its genius and main selling feature was a weekly caricature of the famous, those lithographic prints being the sole reason the magazine is remembered today. The first Vanity Fair caricaturist, Carlo Pelligrini was the talk of the town.

Mrs. Blandings Photo

Bertie hired Pelligrini to create caricatures of each founding member of the Marlborough Club. The original plan, was for Bertie to keep the originals and to present bound sets of lithographic prints of all the founding members, as a gift to each of the subjects. Each lithograph was personally signed by the artist and subject. The drawing at the top made in 1872 by Carlo Pelligrini, is of Lord Osborne, 9th Duke of Leeds, a Marlborough Club founder.

The plan soon fell apart and fewer than 2 dozen sets were completed. This is one of the survivors.

Toad

The Peacock's Anachronism

I've written before that I believe Mr. Irons may be the most beautiful man ever invented, and take cold comfort knowing he is somewhat older than I. Still, I am envious of his 30+ year marriage, knowing I'll be very old before hitting that landmark. I even pretend he dresses himself.

As gorgeous as he was in the original Brideshead Revisted, today we concentrate on his role as Rupert Gould in Longitude (2000). An early scene, set in immediate post WW I England had him wearing a navy suit with wing collared shirt, a shirt style which was then becoming an anachronism. Worn with a polka dot bow tie he was stunning. Since whenever I wear a tie it is always a bow, I've longed for a non formal wing collared shirt since.

Imagin photos of the salesman's patron saint, Winston Churchill, and

Edwardian era Vanity Fair drawings.



I had designed and redesigned MY shirt hundreds of times over, never once considering, much less answering the question of why I needed an anachronism. I could have consulted the master ADG , but I didn't need to be egged on, I just needed to do it.

My opportunity came early November. A Groupon offer by a local haberdasher offered 2 custom shirts for 1 low price. I snapped it up. 16 weeks into a 6 to 8 week schedule, including 6 days for UPS to ship the package across town, the goods arrived Tuesday.

Cream, (I don't care for white) with all my bells and whistles. I like it, but it falls under the I'm going to have to wear this, lest it wear me category, taking pains not to dress like either Hercule Poirot, or a waiter. The French placket front may have been the step too far. Nonetheless, perfect for dressing for dinner at the manse.

Toad

Graydon Carter - Cool Guy

As a kid, I was never much of a Mad Magazine fan. My buds and I were too busy to find much time to read, and we blew all our grass cutting money on french cars and motor boats.

In the spring of 1970 though, a new magazine emerged. The National Lampoon. It was irreverent, topical, funny and strongly directed at college age males. I was hooked immediately, and can still recite verbatim many of the first several issues. The creativity level died pretty quickly though,and by the time the movies came out it was a hollow shell of its former existence.

Fast forward 15 years or so. Another new magazine arrived aiming at the demographic of the original National Lampoon reader, now in his 30's. You remember it as Spy Magazine.



Spy, like NP was topical, satirical, funny, and at times nearly libelous. Occasionally, you be amazed to find a hard hitting investigative piece which would knock your socks off. The recession of the late 80's crippled it, and it was killed it off too soon in the early 90's. It's creator was today's birthday boy, Graydon Carter.


Carter sold off his share of Spy and knocked around journalism awhile. In 1992, after Tina Brown left for the New Yorker, he became editor in chief of Vanity Fair, a position which has given him access to the world of celebrity, wealth and power for nearly 20 years.

Blogging buddy, on hiatus, Sartre hates VF but reads it regularly. I like the magazine a great deal, but get to it infrequently. Like most of us, I enjoy looking at beautiful people, but unlike Jon Goesselin I don't ever want to get caught up in the mix. Fortunately, for me, it ain't never gonna happen.

So the years have been good to him. He's put on a pound or two. Owns the Waverly Inn, his own restaurant in NY. Shows up in a movie here and there. Is a well known raconteur, and pretty good guy considering all that he is surrounded by. There is a marvelous book about Graydon's unique management style, "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" by Toby Young. Catty!!

I'd kill for his hair.

Here's to today's cool guy, Graydon Carter. Happy Birthday.

Toad