"Little David at the Undertaker's" — Furniss's seventh illustration for Dickens's "David Copperfield" (Charles Dickens Library Edition, vol. X, 1910)

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Little David at the Undertaker's

Harry Furniss

1910

13.8 x 9.3 mm (5 ⅜ by 3 ½ inches), vignetted

Mr. Omer showed me a roll of cloth which he said was extra super, and too good for anything short of parents. — Copperfield, p. 126.

Dickens's The Personal History and Experience of David Copperfield, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing X, 128.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: David prepares for the social ritual of his mother's funeral

I preceded Mr. Omer, in compliance with his request; and after showing me a roll of cloth which he said was extra super, and too good mourning for anything short of parents, he took my various dimensions, and put them down in a book. While he was recording them he called my attention to his stock in trade, and to certain fashions which he said had "just come up," and to certain other fashions which he said had "just gone out."

"And by that sort of thing we very often lose a little mint of money," said Mr. Omer. "But fashions are like human beings. They come in, nobody knows when, why, or how; and they go out, nobody knows when, why, or how. Everything is like life, in my opinion, if you look at it in that point of view."

I was too sorrowful to discuss the question, which would possibly have been beyond me under any circumstances; and Mr. Omer took me back into the parlour, breathing with some difficulty on the way.

He then called down a little break-neck range of steps behind a door: "Bring up that tea and bread-and-butter!" which, after some time, during which I sat looking about me and thinking, and listening to the stitching in the room and the tune that was being hammered across the yard, appeared on a tray, and turned out to be for me.

"I have been acquainted with you,’ said Mr. Omer, after watching me for some minutes, during which I had not made much impression on the breakfast, for the black things destroyed my appetite, ‘I have been acquainted with you a long time, my young friend."

"Have you, sir?"

"All your life," said Mr. Omer. "I may say before it. I knew your father before you. He was five foot nine and a half, and he lays in five-and-twen-ty foot of ground." [Chapter IX, "Have a Memorable Birthday," 126]

Commentary: David Experiences Death as a Social Ritual

Furniss had one previous artist's work as precedent for illustrating this chapter (Fred Barnard's 1872 illustration of David's interaction with Mr. Omer and his family, shown below). However, he elected to show David interacting with the village tailor-cum-undertaker, the jovial Mr. Omer, rather than with Omer and his family. Furniss's focus is on David's experience of death as a social construct, particularly on Victorian funeral rituals such as a child's being measured for an expensive suit that he will soon outgrow. That he drives a thriving trade from funereal fashions Furniss notes by inserting a fashion poster for suitable male attire for such lugubrious occasions, upper right. But rather than put on a mournful face, Mr. Omer is, as his daughter Minnie has just remarked "pretty gay." After all, this will b e a nice bit of business. David in schoolboy attire, including a miniature top-hat, is trying fathom what the merry tailor is assuring him will be the latest fashion. Somehow, he cannot enter into the transaction with the same engagement: "I was too sorrowful to discuss the question."

Other Editions: David gets a Sibling (Briefly); David and Clothing (1849-1910)

Left: Phiz's July 1849 steel engraving: Changes at Home (Chapter IX, "I Have a Memorable Birthday"). Centre: Felix Octavius Carr Darley's frontispiece for Vol. 1 of the Sheldon and Company Household Edition (1863): When This Ugly Old Man. Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond Edition study of the sartorially-minded David: David's Bargain (1867).

Left: Fred Barnard's 1872 engraving of the banter in the undertaker's parlour: "Father!" said Minnie, playfully. "What a porpoise you do grow!" (1872). Right: Kyd's Player's Cigarette Card No. 36 (lithograph from watercolour): David Copperfield (1910). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Relevant Illustrated Editions of this Novel (1849 through 1910)

Hablot Knight Browne's Forty steel engravings for the Chapman and Hall Edition (May 1849 through November 1850)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 1, 1863)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 2, 1863)
Sir John Gilbert's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 3, 1863)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 4, 1863)
Sol Eytinge, Junior's 16 wood engravings for the Diamond Edition (1867)
Fred Barnard's 62 Composite Woodblock Engravings for the Household Edition (1872)

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. The Personal History of David Copperfield, illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Centenary Edition. London & New York: Chapman & Hall, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911. 2 vols.

_______. The Personal History of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. V.

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

_______. The Personal History and Experiences of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. X.

Hammerton, J. A., ed. The Dickens Picture-Book: A Record of the the Dickens Illustrations. London: Educational Book, 1910.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U.P., 1978.

Created 5 March 2022