The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol 2 | Page 9

day, when the plates were being
prepared for an album which I published as a souvenir of the show, the
engraver arrived with a proof.
[Illustration: MR. SAMBOURNE'S PROSPECTUS.]
"But there is some mistake here," said my secretary. "We have no such
picture as that on the premises."

The engraver was puzzled, and as he seemed rather sceptical upon the
point, he was allowed to look round, and speedily found the picture he
had copied. It had actually been close at my secretary's elbow since the
"Artistic Joke" was opened to the public, but as the pictures were all
under glass, I suppose he had only seen his own reflection when gazing
at them. It was this perhaps which caused another gentleman whom I
have before mentioned to beat so hasty a retreat. Both of them may
have been frightened by what they saw.
The suggestion that I should be run as a public company emanated
from the fertile brain of my friend Mr. Linley Sambourne. This is his
rough idea of the prospectus:
This Company has been formed to acquire the sole exclusive
concession of the marvellous and rapid power of production of the
above-mentioned Managing Director, and to take over the same as a
going concern.
These productions have been in continual flow for many years past, and
are too well known to need any assurance of the possibility of a failure
of supply. It is therefore with the utmost confidence that this sure and
certain investment is now offered to the public with an absolute
guarantee of a percentage for Fifteen Years of Forty-five per cent.
Mr. Furniss can be seen at work with the regularity of a threshing
machine and the variety of a kaleidoscope any day from 8 o'c. a.m. to 8
o'c. p.m. on presentation of visiting card.
BANKERS, Close, Gatherum & Co., Lombard Street.
SOLICITORS, Black, White & Co., Tube Court.
SECRETARY, pro tem. Earl M----, Arrystone Grange.
The Subscription List will close on or before Monday, April 1st, 1887.
* * * * *

Messrs. C. White & Greyon Grey invite subscriptions for the
undermentioned Share Capital and Debentures of the
HARRY FURNISS PARODY CARTOON COMPANY (Unlimited).
Incorporated under the Joint Stock Companies Acts, 1862 and 1883.
Share Capital £4,000,000.
Divided as follows:
450,000 Ordinary Shares of £5 each £2,250,000 175,000 7 p.c.
Cumulative Preference Shares of £10 each 1,750,000
DIRECTORS.
Chairman: H. V---- W----, Esq., Regent Street, photographer. Sir John
S---- V----, Kt., Pine Court, Kent. H---- F----, Esq., Draughtsman and
Designer, 45, Drury Lane.
HARRY FURNISS, ESQ., R.R.A., R.R.I., &c., will join the Board as
Managing Director on allotment.

A JOKE WITHIN A JOKE.
[Illustration]
A showman, particularly with some attraction of the passing hour, must
"boom his show for all it's worth," as the Americans say; so I "boomed"
my "Artistic Joke" with an advertising joke, and at the same time
parodied another branch of art--the art of advertising the artists, by a
special number of a magazine devoted to the work of an Academician.
The special numbers, generally published at Christmas, are familiar and
interesting to us all. Still, from any point of view they are fair game.
They are of course merely non-critical, eulogistic accounts of the artist
and his work. So

"How he Did It--The Story of my 'Artistic Joke,'" duly appeared, written
by my Lay-figure.
"PREFACE.
[Illustration]
"The fact of my being only an artist's lay-figure will account for any
stiffness or angularity in my literary style. Whilst conscious of my
deficiencies in this respect, I am comforted by the consideration that a
lay-figure attempting literature cannot by any possibility perpetrate
greater absurdities than are committed by many a ready writer who
indulges in those glowing and gushing descriptions of artists and their
work which it is now the fashion to publish, in some such shape as the
present, for the delectation (and delusion) of a gossip-loving public."
This, the origin of "The Artistic Joke," is a fair specimen of the
absurdity I published as an advertisement, though many bought it and
read it as a "true and authentic account" of the confessions of a
caricaturist's lay-figure:
[Illustration: MY PORTRAIT. FRONTISPIECE FOR 'HOW HE DID
IT.']
"As many would be interested in knowing how this extraordinary idea
of an Academy pour rire first occurred to this artist, I hasten to gratify
their natural curiosity. It was before little Harry reached the age of
seven, and while watching with fellow-feeling the house-painters at
work in his father's house. One day, at lunchtime, when the men had
left their ladders and paraphernalia near the picture-gallery (a long
room containing choice works of all the great masters), he seized his
opportunity: with herculean strength and Buffalo-Billish agility, our
hero dragged all the ladders, paints and brushes into the gallery, and