Sir John Bridge Chief Magistrate

Details

Sir Leslie Matthew Ward 'Spy' (1851-1922)
Sir John Bridge
Chief Magistrate
signed 'Spy' (lower left)
pencil, watercolour and bodycolour
7 x 12 in. (17.8 x 30.6 cm.)

Provenance

Thomas Gibson Bowles.
Original Drawings for the Cartoons in Vanity Fair; Sotheby's, London, 28 - 29 October 1912, lot 55 (£2 10s. to Harker).
Stanley Jackson.

Exhibited

Hendon, Church Farm House Museum, Vanity Fair 1869-1914, 10 September - 18 December, 1983.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Sir John Bridge (1824-1900), Police Magistrate, graduated from Trinity College, Oxford, in 1846, was called to the Bar in 1850 and became a member of the Home Circuit. In 1872, he became Police Magistrate at Hammersmith, then Westminster (1880-81), and afterwards Southwark (1882-6). Bridge became Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in 1890, being knighted the same year. His most famous trial was that of Oscar Wilde in April, 1895. He retired in 1900 and died at his home in London only months later.

He is a good fellow and a gentleman.... though he is strong enough to keep his Court in order. He has a persuasive manner that is sometimes quite fatherly. His pet abomination is the swindling philanthropist.

Vanity Fair, 'Men of the Day', No. 505, 1891.

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