Original Pencil Sketch by Phil May, 1898May (Phil) Original ...

Hammer

€1,000

Original Pencil Sketch by Phil May, 1898May (Phil) Original pencil Sketch by the influential caricaturist Philip William May (1864-1903), depicting Lord Charles Beresford in naval uniform, holding up a puppet of a Chinaman, and with a bulldog at his feet. Signed "To Herbert Andrew with kind regards from Phil May" and "Phil May 98". Marked at top with instruction for printer "half tone all over". (1)Beresford, a popular figure with the Victorian public and caricatured as the archetypal "British Bulldog", was in 1898 representative in China of the Associated Chambers of Commerce. He met with Chinese leaders and had strong views on how British trade could be better protected if China would modernise and reform its army. In 1899 he wrote The Break-up of China and was caricatured by Vanity Fair wearing Chinese costume and holding in one hand a Pekinese dog and in the other a volume entitled On Broken China and how to mend it.Beresford was evidently proud of this sketch, which he published in his Memoirs (II, f.p. 434), captioned "from an original drawing by Phil May in the possession of the author".