[Charles Dickens (1812-1870)] – Hablot Knight Browne ['Phiz'] (1815-1882) - photo 1
[Charles Dickens (1812-1870)] – Hablot Knight Browne ['Phiz'] (1815-1882) - photo 2
[Charles Dickens (1812-1870)] – Hablot Knight Browne ['Phiz'] (1815-1882) - photo 3
[Charles Dickens (1812-1870)] – Hablot Knight Browne ['Phiz'] (1815-1882) - photo 4
[Charles Dickens (1812-1870)] – Hablot Knight Browne ['Phiz'] (1815-1882) - photo 5

[Charles Dickens (1812-1870)] – Hablot Knight Browne ['Phiz'] (1815-1882)

Lot 85
15.12.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 100
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1108884
Lot 85 | [Charles Dickens (1812-1870)] – Hablot Knight Browne ['Phiz'] (1815-1882)
Estimate value
£ 80 000 – 120 000
[Charles Dickens (1812-1870)] – Hablot Knight Browne ['Phiz'] (1815-1882)
42 original drawings for Little Dorrit
A series of 42 original drawings for Little Dorrit by ‘Phiz’, Dickens’s principal illustrator, comprising preparatory designs for the cover, frontispiece, title-page and thirty-three of thirty-eight plates, together with an alternative version of one plate and five drawings copied by the artist from the etchings to complete the set. Included with the series is a first edition of Little Dorrit bound from the original parts, and an autograph letter (dated 15 May 1878) from the artist to an unidentified collector stating that ‘the sketches which you have are the originals from which I executed my etchings for “Little Dorritt” [sic]’. First issued in monthly parts by Bradbury and Evans between December 1855 and June 1857, Little Dorrit critiques the shortcomings and bureaucracy of Victorian-era British institutions, highlighting the plight of the impoverished while exposing the moral decay of the wealthy. Its enduring relevance underscores society's struggles with class, wealth disparity, and the inefficiencies of systems, making it a timeless commentary on social justice.

Hablot Knight Browne [‘Phiz’] illustrated ten of Dickens’s fifteen novels, contributing over 500 plates, title vignettes, frontispieces and cover illustrations, each of which was approved by the critical eye of Dickens himself: ‘By whatever means Dickens relayed his instructions […] he was unvarying in his insistence that he approve the artist's preliminary sketches’ (Cohen). In the case of Little Dorrit, Dickens was particularly demanding of his artist’s attention: ‘Traveling relentlessly back and forth between London and France, Dickens began writing to Browne at length about his forthcoming narrative; hearing nothing about or from him, the anxious author demanded that Bradbury and Evans send Browne his Paris address and communicate [...] the artist's whereabouts’. Cohen, Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators (1980).

The majority of Browne’s preparatory designs are in pencil and wash or ink, pencil and wash, with most ultimately appearing in reverse in the published work, sometimes with minor alterations. The illustrations are as follows:

i) The design for the upper wrapper, pencil, pen-and-ink, signed and lettered by ‘Phiz’, 202 x 133mm
ii) The frontispiece, pencil and wash, captioned by ‘Phiz’, 164 x 108mm
iii) The vignette title, pen, ink, pencil and wash, lettered by ‘Phiz’, 169 x 109mm
iv) ‘The Birds in the Cage’, pen, ink and charcoal, arched top, with a faint vertical crease and a few spots, 90 x 126mm
v) ‘Under the Microscope’, pencil, 140 x 105mm
vi) ‘Mr. Flintwich Mediates as a Friend of the Family’, pencil and wash, faint vertical fold at centre, titled and numbered by ‘Phiz’, 102 x 127mm
vii) ‘The Room with the Portrait’, pencil, wash, pen, ink and charcoal, slightly spotted, faint vertical fold at centre, arched top, titled by ‘Phiz’, 90 x 126mm
viii) ‘Little Mother’, pencil with orange chalk, titled by ‘Phiz’, 173 x 112mm
ix) ‘Making Off’, pencil, pen-and-ink and charcoal, arched top, stain to right side, titled by Phiz, 89 x 157mm
x) ‘Mr. F.'s Aunt is conducted into retirement’, pen, ink and charcoal, with touches of orange chalk, 110 x 138mm,
xi) ‘Little Dorrit's Party’, charcoal, arched top, titled by ‘Phiz’, 161 x 101mm
xii) ‘Mr. and Mrs. Flintwinch’, pencil and wash, faint fold at the centre, titled by ‘Phiz’, 108 x 127mm
xiii) ‘The Ferry’, pencil and orange chalk, with touches of coloured washes, titled by ‘Phiz’, 95 x 164mm
xiv) ‘The Brothers’, pencil and wash, signed, inscribed on the mount: ‘not the original drawing but a copy made by H.K.B. from his etching’, 113 x 170mm,
xv) ‘Miss. Dorrit and Little Dorrit’, charcoal with touches of orange chalk, titled by Phiz, 119 x 185mm
xvi) ‘Visitors at the Works’, pen, ink, pencil and charcoal, with touches of orange chalk, arched top, titled by ‘Phiz’, 95 x 161mm
xvii) ‘The Story of the Princess’, pencil with touches of orange chalk, faint creasing, titled by ‘Phiz’, 136 x 108mm,
xviii) ‘Five and Twenty’, pencil and wash, signed, inscribed on mount: ‘not the original drawing but a copy made by H.K.B. from his etching’, 108 x 176mm
xix) ‘Floating Away’, charcoal and wash, 93 x 175mm,
xx) ‘Mr. Flintwinch has a Mild Attack of Irritability’, charcoal and wash, titled by ‘Phiz’, 173 x 129mm
xxi) An alternative, unused version of the preceding subject, pencil and charcoal, horizontal crease at top, small tear, 144 x 93mm
xxii) ‘The Pensioner - Entertainment’, pencil and wash, small stain, titled by ‘Phiz’: ‘the Pensioner's Entertainment’, 125 by 169mm
xxiii) ‘Society expresses its views on a question of Marriage’, pencil and wash, with touches of orange chalk, arched at top and bottom, 142 x 118mm
xxiv) ‘The Marshalsea becomes an Orphan’, pencil and wash, with touches of orange chalk, 112 x 206mm
xxv) ‘The Travellers’, pencil and wash, with touches of orange chalk, signed by ‘Phiz’, 112 x 176mm
xxvi) ‘The family dignity is affronted’, pencil and wash, signed by ‘Phiz’, inscribed on mount: ‘not the original drawing but a copy made by H.K.B. from his etching’, 115 x 179mm
xxvii) ‘Instinct Stronger than Training’, pencil, wash and orange chalk, 112 x 177mm
xxviii) ‘Mr. Sparkler under a Reverse of Circumstances’, pencil and wash, 111 x 175mm
xxix) ‘Rigour of Mr. F.'s Aunt’, pencil, with touches of orange chalk, small stain, 109 by 170mm
xxx) ‘Mr. Flintwinch receives the embrace of friendship’, pencil, with touches of orange chalk, 112 x 154mm
xxxi) ‘The Patriotic Conference’, pencil and wash, 109 x 166mm
xxxii) ‘Mr. Baptist is Supposed to have Seen Something’, pencil and wash, 105 x 150mm
xxxiii) ‘Missing and Dreaming’, pencil and wash, captioned in ink by the artist, 109 x 171mm
xxxiv) ‘Reception of an Old Friend’, pencil and wash, with touches of orange chalk, captioned in ink by the artist, minor stains towards bottom, 163 x 109mm
xxxv) ‘An Unexpected After Dinner Speech’, pencil and wash, 108 x 178mm
xxxvi) ‘The Night’, pencil and wash, 164 x 104mm
xxxvii) ‘Flora's tour of inspection’, pencil and wash on blue paper, 158 x 114mm
xxxviii) ‘Mr. Merdle a borrower’, pencil and wash, signed, inscribed on mount: ‘not the original drawing but a copy made by H.K.B. from his etching’, 109 by 174mm
xxxix) ‘At Mr. John Chivery's Tea-Table’, pencil and wash, signed, inscribed on mount: ‘not the original drawing but a copy made by H.K.B. from his etching’, 141 x 109mm
xl) ‘In the Old Room’, pencil and charcoal, 114 x 169mm
xli) ‘Damocles’, charcoal and pencil, captioned by the artist, minor staining, 167 x 98mm,
xlii) ‘The Third Volume of the registers’, pencil and wash, captioned by the artist, 106 x 169mm
Together 4 volumes, folio (mount size: 344 x 261mm). Early-20th-century dark green straight-grained morocco gilt by Riviere & Son, edges gilt. Provenance: Comte Alain de Suzannet (bookplate) – by descent to the Comtesse de Suzannet and sold Sotheby's London, 22-23 November 1971, lot 186, where bought for £4400 by: – J. Harland – Sotheby's London, 27 September 1988, lot 128, sold for £28,600.

[Sold with:] H.K. Browne. Autograph letter signed to an unidentified recipient ('Dear Sir'), 99 Ladbroke Grove Road, 15 May 1878.

[And:] DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870). Little Dorrit. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1857. First edition, bound from the original parts. Octavo (209 x 134mm). Etched frontispiece, additional title and 38 plates (occasional browning). Contemporary dark blue polished calf gilt, upper and lower wrappers from original parts bound at end (extremities faintly rubbed).
Artist:Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)
Place of origin:United Kingdom
Auction house category:Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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