A full-length colour caricature of the jockey Sam Loates in his racing silks, posed at an angle against Spy's plain tinted ground, the standard turn of a Vanity Fair weekly plate. The Loates brothers rode as a family concern through the closing decades of the Victorian turf, and this plate is Vanity Fair's record of exactly that kind of working dynasty — a surname that meant something in the betting ring before it meant anything to art. the loose set of the shoulders under the silks, drawn easy rather than stiff, Spy's way of marking a man who lived in a saddle rather than a drawing room. A surname worn like a set of colours, carried by more than one back.

Maker: Leslie Ward ('Spy'), chromolithograph, Vanity Fair
Date: 1896
Medium of the original: Chromolithograph
Original held by: Vanity Fair caricature
Credit: Vanity Fair caricature
Rights: Cleared for print
Catalogue number: PA-00120

As chosen: 16 x 24 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	16 x 24 in
Outside size	17.6 x 25.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
8 x 12 in	466	Excellent	Trimmed 6.7%
12 x 18 in	310	Excellent	Trimmed 6.7%
16 x 24 in	233	Excellent	Trimmed 6.7%
20 x 30 in	186	Good	Trimmed 6.7%
24 x 36 in	155	Good	Trimmed 6.7%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
8 x 10 in	Wrong shape: a 22% crop
11 x 14 in	Wrong shape: a 21% crop
12 x 16 in	Wrong shape: a 17% crop
16 x 20 in	Wrong shape: a 22% crop
18 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 17% crop
24 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 22% crop
30 x 40 in	Wrong shape: a 17% crop
36 x 48 in	Wrong shape: a 17% crop
40 x 60 in	93 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged

Scanned

2026-10-07

Master file

3,729 x 5,998 px, srgb, sRGB

Tone

Darks 130, lights 221 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark

Colour

0% vivid

Sharpness

7.92

Notes

Narrow tonal range (34 L*): prints soft and even, as the original reads
Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned

Shipping for this piece to a US address is $25.90, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.

Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.

A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.