Mrs Todgers and Bailey

Mrs Todgers and Bailey

Alfred Crowquill

Photomechanical reproduction of watercolour

5½ x 3½ inches

A scene from Fickens's Martin Chuzzlewit.

This postcard is a one-off illustration showing the disagreement between Mrs Todgers and her servant Bailey about the price of beer. The comic types are well-conceived, making a strong visual contrast with the female character’s beaky thinness and the boy’s flamboyant hair and confrontational stance, with one arm stuffed up a boot. Though produced in the 1860s, this image was reprinted in the 90s; the lack of a dividing line between the address and the message places it before 1902.

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.

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