Storytime, Dickens Charles, Sam Weller, Pickwick Papers, Kyd, Clarke Joseph Clayton, 1889

Date: 1889

Author: Dickens Charles

Novel: Pickwick Papers

Paper Size: 185 x 253

Condition: very good

Price: $80

Description:

Beautiful original chromolithograph from the series, The Characters of Charles Dickens, published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, London, Paris & New York.

It was originally an idea by Robert Seymour, the illustrator, to which Dickens was asked to contribute as an up-and-coming writer following the success of Sketches by Boz, published in 1836.

Dickens, supremely confident as ever, increasingly took over the unsuccessful monthly publication after Seymour had committed suicide.

With the introduction of Sam Weller in chapter 10, the book became the first real publishing phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances, Sam Weller joke books and other merchandise.

This Print comes from Character sketches from Charles Dickens, Portrayed by Kyd in a series of watercolour sketches.

Sam Weller

Sam Weller is a fictional character in The Pickwick Papers (1836), the first novel by Charles Dickens, and is the character that made Dickens famous. A humorous Cockney bootblack, Sam Weller first appeared in the tenth serialized episode.

Previously the monthly parts of the book had been doing badly, selling only about 1,000 copies a month — but the humour of the character transformed the book into a publishing phenomenon, raising the sales by late autumn of 1837 to 40,000 a month

Such was the popularity of the character that William Thomas Moncrieff named his 1837 burletta Samuel Weller, or, The Pickwickians after the main comic character in the novel, rather than on Samuel Pickwick himself.

Biography

[Kyd] Joseph Clayton Clarke (1856-1937)

Clarke worked under the pseudonym “Kyd”, he was a British artist best known for his illustrations of characters from the novels of Charles Dickens.

Born in Onchan on the Isle of Man, the son of Lauris and Eliza Clark, Clarke had many occupations during his lifetime, including designer of cigarette cards and postcards, and as a fore-edge painter principally specializing in characters from the works of Charles Dickens. He worked for Punch for only one day and then as a freelance artist until 1900.”As a character ‘Kyd’ emulated those of Dickens and his own illustrations – slightly larger than life. In his style and dress he was mildly flamboyant for the period. He seldom varied his attire from a grey suit, spats, homburg hat, gloves and was never without a carnation or substitute flower in his button hole.”

 Around 1892, Clarke moved with his family to Chichester in West Sussex.