Antique map dealer from Croxley Green looking for a new home for thousands of original Vanity Fair caricatures (From Watford Observer)

Antique map dealer from Croxley Green looking for a new home for thousands of original Vanity Fair caricatures

3:51pm Wednesday 17th March 2010 in

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An antique map dealer from Croxley Green, who owns thousands of original Vanity Fair prints, is looking for a knowledgeable owner to give them a new home.

Founded by late Clive A. Burden in 1966, the company of the same name sells antique and rare maps, prints and books.

Their collection includes maps printed before 1500, and both topographical and decorative prints, in addition to the 2,000 Vanity Fair caricatures from the 19th and 20th century.

The portraits feature celebrities of the time, including cricketer WD Grace, jockey Fred Archer, as well as Oscar Wilde and Charles Darwin.

Philip Burden, director and owner of the collection, said: “It's the largest collection of these caricatures, made up of excess stock from when the company went bust.

“Vanity Fair was a publication where socialites could live out their vanities in public, a bit like a Hello or OK! of the era. It was extremely witty and focussed on things like what the Queen was doing, important marriages and social occasions.

“It was named after the novel and started in May 1868 by Thomas Gibson Bowles. It's circulation peaked in 1900 and was shut down in 1914, due to the war and changes in fashion.

“After the first dozen issues, Bowles started including the caricatures, starting with Benjamin D'Israeli, but he had to pay for them, which interested politicians at the time. Then the perception changed, and if you featured in Vanity Fair, especially if you were illustrated then you had made it.

“Some, such as Charles Dickens, refused to be drawn. At one point an artist deliberately got himself invited to a party so he could study a subject for publication, similar to the modern day paparazzi.”

Mr Burden's family bought the collection in the late 70s, while it was being stored in America.

“Caricatures were popular in the 17th century, but really took off in the 18th century with artists such as Hogarth,” he added “they were purely imagery but Bowles extended them into the literary space.

“I'd rather it stayed in the UK, but I feel it's better in someone else's hands, so if it went back to America then so be it.”