1857 Sixteen steel engravings LITTLE DORRIT [Ch. Dickens] H M Browne (Phiz)

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In the 1800's it was customary for publishers to send their sales force out to the bookstores with a sample book (dummy) containing artwork that would give an impression of the illustrations of a book. The printing of these sample books preceded the printing of the first edition of the book, often by many months. This item is such a collection of illustrations. It contains 16 of the original steel engravings that the famous illustrator Hablot Knight Browne (better known as Phiz ) made for Little Dorrit by the even more famous Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit, like all Dickens ' books, was published in installment, 19, published between 1855 and 1857. Phiz made two engravings for the installments, the first edition of the book contained 39 engravings, including the frontispiece, so Phiz made 37 more for the book itself. The publisher was Bradbury and Evans, London, in 1857. ====== The binding of the 'book" is quite plain, there are moisture marks throughout the book also affecting the engravings, but somehow the artistic value of the etchings still shines through. . Hablot Knight Browne (12 July 1815 – 8 July 1882) was an English artist, famous as Phiz, illustrator of books by Charles Dickens, Charles Lever and Harrison Ainsworth.Of Huguenot ancestry, Hablot Knight Browne was born in England, in Lambeth (near London) on Kennington Lane. He was the fourteenth of Catherine and William Loder Browne's fifteen children. According to Valerie Browne Lester, Phiz was in fact the illegitimate son of his eldest sister Kate and Captain Nicholas Hablot of Napoleon's Imperial Guard. There is some uncertainty regarding the exact date of birth. 12 July 1815 is the date given by Valerie Browne Lester, his great-great-granddaughter, and John Buchanan-Brown in his book Phiz!: illustrator of Dickens' world. Other possible dates are 11 June 1815 (Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition) and 15 June 1815 (Dictionary of National Biography).When he was 7 years old, his father William Browne abandoned his family, changed his name to Breton and sailed with embezzled funds to Philadelphia where he became known for his watercolour paintings. William Browne was then declared dead by his wife Catherine. Thomas Moxon, husband of William's sister Ann Loder Browne, helped to support the family, who were left badly off.Browne was apprenticed to William Finden, an engraver, in whose studio he obtained his only artistic education. However, he was unsuited for engraving, and having during 1833 secured an important prize from the Society of Arts for a drawing of John Gilpin, he abandoned engraving in the following year and began other artistic work, with the ultimate object of becoming a painter.Artistic careerIn the spring of 1836, he met Charles Dickens. It was at the time when the Dickens was looking for someone to illustrate Pickwick. Browne had been the illustrator of his little pamphlet Sunday under Three Heads. In the original edition of Pickwick, issued in shilling monthly parts from early in 1836 until the end of 1837, the first seven plates were drawn by Robert Seymour, who committed suicide in April 1836. The next two plates were by Robert William Buss.1849 etching for David Copperfield, titled "I make myself known to my aunt"Browne and William Makepeace Thackeray visited the publishers' office with specimens of their work for Dickens's inspection. The novelist preferred Browne. Browne's first two etched plates for Pickwick were signed "Nemo," but the third was signed "Phiz," a pseudonym which was retained in future. When asked to explain why he chose this name he answered that the change from "Nemo" to "Phiz" was made to harmonize better with Dickens's "Boz."Phiz developed the character Sam Weller graphically just as Seymour had developed Pickwick. Dickens and Phiz became good friends and in 1838 travelled together to Yorkshire to see the schools of which Nicholas Nickleby became the hero: afterwards they made several journeys of this nature in company to facilitate the illustrator's work. Other Dickens chara... read more

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