Cloth casing, with a gilt device.
An unsigned original design by Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz).
1864
Gilt device imprinted on rough-textured navy blue cloth.
8 x 5¾ inches
An example of Phiz’s design for book-casing, this time an original piece. The book was issued in tandem with a number of other versions, each with variant bindings by other hands. This version proclaims the work to be by ‘Rattlebrain & Phiz’ – another sign of the way in which authors and illustrators were viewed in the 1860s as partners of equal status who co-produced the text as a visual/verbal hybrid. Phiz may have produced many other binding designs, but the absence of documentation and the fact that he does not sign any of this work makes it difficult to track down.
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Photograph and text by Simon Cooke