"Peggotty Searching for Little Emily" (1884, rpt. 1912)

Peggotty Searching for Little Emily

Signed "F. Barnard"

1884, rpt. 1912?

Photogravure

11.3 cm high by 8.8 cm wide (4 ⅜ by 3 ½ inches), framed.

Vignetted frontispiece illustrating Volume XV, 176, in Dickens's David Copperfield in the Co-operative Publication Society Edition

Terry-Lynn Johnson Collection

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use the image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Text illustrated:

"Many a woman, Mas'r Davy, as has had a daughter of about Emily's age, I've found a-waiting for me, at Our Saviour's Cross outside the village, fur to do me a sim'lar kindness." — David Copperfield, based on a passage in Chapter XL, "The Wanderer."

Commentary: A Flashback Illustrated

The principal illustrator of Chapman and Hall's twenty-two volume Household Edition (1871-79), Fred Barnard, contracted with Cassell, Petter, and Galpin to produce his first series of six "extra" coloured illustrations, Character Sketches from Dickens, in chromolithograph (including portraits of some of Dickens's best-loved early characters: Samuel Pickwick; Alfred Jingle; Bill Sikes and dog, Bull's eye; Sairey Gamp; Little Dorrit; and Sydney Carton). A second series, in photogravure, which appeared in 1884, contained portraits of three paired characters (Tony and Sam Weller; Caleb Plummer and his blind daughter, Bertha; Little Nell and her grandfather), and Rogue Riderhood, Dan'l Peggotty, and Seth Pecksniff; and similarly a third and final photogravure series appeared in 1885, with portraits of Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim; Uriah Heep; Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness; Betsy Trotwood; Captain Cuttle; and the indefatigable Wilkins Micawber.

See Second Series: Dan'l Peggotty in France, Hunting for Em'ly for David Copperfield

Bibliography

Barnard, Fred. Character Sketches from Dickens. (16 photogravure illustrations). London, Paris & Melbourne: Cassell, 1885.

Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield, with 61 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. III.

Dickens, Charles. Works. Photogravure-Illustrated Edition. New York and London: Co-operative Publication Society, [n. d., 1912?].

A Series of Character Sketches from Dickens, from the Original Drawings by Frederick Barnard, Being Facsimiles of Original Drawings by Fred. Barnard. Series 2: Tony and Sam Weller; Caleb Plummer and his blind daughter, Bertha; Little Nell and her grandfather; Rogue Riderhood; Dan'l Peggotty Searching for Little Emily; and Seth Pecksniff. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1884.

Created 12 August 2012

Last modified 21 October 2026