One evening at the Beefsteak Club, I watched George Grossmith chaffing Corney Grain.
"Oh, Dick," he was saying, pointing a derisive finger at Dick's waistcoat, "you're putting it on!"
"You little whipper-snapper, how dare you!" said Corney Grain, smiling down at his friend.
When they had gone, it amused me to sit down at the writing table and make a quick caricature while they were fresh in my mind. A member, observing my preoccupation, jokingly asked me why I was so busy, and if I usually spent so long over my correspondence. Whereupon I showed him the drawing which represented the two humorists as I had watched them, a tall Corney Grain waving aside with a fat and expansive hand, a minute and impish Grossmith.
He handed it round to the members gathered by the fire, who, having seen the two men in a similar position shortly before, were much amused.
"If I were you I'd draw it larger and have it reproduced—it's bound to be popular," he remarked.
Taking his advice I went home and sat up all night making a more careful drawing from my sketch, which I elaborated with colour afterwards. I offered the drawing to Vanity Fair which, under the rule of a temporary editor (in the absence of Gibson Bowles) was refused. This gave me an opportunity of selling it privately to Rudolph Lehmann, who paid me twice as much as a previous bidder had offered for it. I had several reproductions made by the Autotype Company which I coloured myself, and eventually was £250 in pocket. I have an autograph book full of the signatures and letters of distinguished people who became owners of these prints, including those of King Edward and the Dukes of Edinburgh and Teck. Thus I had to thank the short-sighted editor for my success. I quote the following from George Grossmith's amusing reminiscences, "Piano & I."
"I allude to the permission by Mr. Leslie Ward, son of E. M. Ward, R.A., the famous artist, to publish the portrait which appears in this book. Most people are under the impression that it was one of the cartoons in Vanity Fair—it was nothing of the sort. It was a private enterprise of 'Spy.' The first issue was tinted by the artist, signed by him and by Corney Grain and myself. Those copies are now worth twenty or thirty times their original value. The origin of the picture was this. Dick Grain and I were most formidable rivals and most intimate friends. Hostesses during the London season secured one or the other of us. The following words are not absolutely verbatim, but as nearly as possible as I can get to the fact.
"Mrs. Jones: 'Are you coming to my party next Wednesday, Mrs. Smith, to hear Corney Grain?'
"Mrs. Smith: 'Indeed I am, and I sincerely hope you are coming to my party on Thursday to hear George Grossmith. Oh, Mrs. Robinson, how are you ... etc.'
"Mrs. Robinson: 'Delighted to meet you both. Are you coming to my afternoon on Saturday?'
"Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Jones, together: 'Indeed we are, who have you got?'
"Mrs. Robinson: 'Oh, I have engaged Corney Grain and George Grossmith!'"
GEORGE GROSSMITH. "Gee Gee."(left) & CORNEY GRAIN. 1888.