I’m not done with Pickwick yet.
On another dismally dank day I spent some time scanning the contents of
Here is the front cover
and here the title page.
The publishers have not dated the weighty volume, but Mr Reynolds’s illustrations are dated 1910. The book consists of extracts from Charles Dickens’s comic novel beautifully illustrated by another of my favourite artists.
I reviewed The Folio Society full version in yesterday’s post without revealing the story; I hope it will not give too much away by captioning each of these paintings with the title printed on the tissue protecting the tipped in chromolithographic plates. I will omit the explanatory lines that accompany these titles.
MR PICKWICK (Frontispiece)
MR TUPMAN, MR SNODGRASS, AND MR WINKLE
MR ALFRED JINGLE
ON THE ROCHESTER COACH
THE BULL INN, ROCHESTER
MR JINGLE ARRAYED IN MR NATHANIEL WINKLE’S SUIT
THE PICKWICKIANS SET OUT FOR DINGLEY DELL
MR WARDLE
SAM WELLER
MR JINGLE AND THE SPINSTER AUNT
MR PICKWICK UNDERGOES A TRYING EXPERIENCE
MRS LEO HUNTER’S PARTY
A PLEASANT DAY
MR PICKWICK’S ROMANTIC ADVENTURE
THE ELDER MR WELLER
MRS WELLER AND MR STIGGINS
MISS ARABELLA ALLEN
THE FAT BOY
THE PICKWICKIANS DISPORT THEMSELVES ON THE ICE
MR BOB SAWYER AND MR BEN ALLEN
MR SERJEANT BUZFUZ
SAM WELLER ATTENDS A SELECT SOIREE
MR JINGLE IN THE FLEET
THE UNTIMELY DOWNFALL OF THE REVEREND MR STIGGINS
This is what Wikipedia tells us about the artist:
‘Frank Reynolds (1876 in London – April 1953) was a British artist. Son of an artist, he studied at Heatherley’s School of Art.[1]
Reynolds had a drawing called A provincial theatre company on tour published in The Graphic on 30 November 1901. In 1906, he began contributing to Punchmagazine[1] and was regularly published within its pages during World War I, noted for his anti-Kaiser illustrations in Punch.[2] A collection of 199 of his illustrations is in the Punch archives.[3]
Peggotty and young David Copperfield, art by Frank Reynolds 1911
He was well known for his many illustrations in several books by Charles Dickens, including David Copperfield (c1911),[4] The Pickwick Papers (c1912) and The Old Curiosity Shop (c1913).[2] He succeeded F. H. Townsend as the Art Editor for Punch.[1]
He was also a prolific watercolour painter and was a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours from 1903. He continued to illustrate in black and white or in colours all his life. He became known in the 1930s and through the Second World War for characters called The Bristlewoods.[1]
One of his more notable works is entitled Jingle.’
This evening we dined on baked ham, creamy mashed potatoes; piquant cauliflower cheese, crunchy carrots, and tender runner beans with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2018.