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Caleb Plummer — The Toy Maker
Harry Furniss
1910
12.9 cm high x 7.2 cm wide, vignetted
Third illustration for The Cricket on the Hearth in Christmas Books, Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910), facing VIII, 192.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
In the midst of all these objects, Caleb and his daughter sat at work. The Blind Girl busy as a Doll's dressmaker; Caleb painting and glazing the four-pair front of a desirable family mansion.
The care imprinted in the lines of Caleb's face, and his absorbed and dreamy manner, which would have sat well on some alchemist or abstruse student, were at first sight an odd contrast to his occupation, and the trivialities about him. But, trivial things, invented and pursued for bread, become very serious matters of fact; and, apart from this consideration, I am not at all prepared to say, myself, that if Caleb had been a Lord Chamberlain, or a Member of Parliament, or a lawyer, or even a great speculator, he would have dealt in toys one whit less whimsical, while I have a very great doubt whether they would have been as harmless. ["Chirp The Second," 188]
Caleb Plummer, one of two artists in the novella, is surrounded by evidence of his skill. Hanging behind him is the sack-cloth garment that he has described for his blind daughter as a beautiful, blue topcoat, the latest gambit in his continuing to maintain the delusion that they are comfortably circumstanced rather than poor. The father and daughter share a devoted companionship in sharp contrast to that of Jenny Wren and her alcoholic and irresponsible parent, "Mr. Dolls," in Our Mutual Friend, a pair of figures with whom Furniss's readers would already have been familiar.
Here, Furniss has sketched in Caleb's sackcloth ("beautiful blue") great coat (with "G & T GLASS" presenting the truth palpably to the reader) behind him, drying, with the dolls' mansion prominently positioned. Whereas earlier studies of Caleb in his workroom include his daughter, Furniss has elected to present a study of the grey-haired, balding little toy maker by himself, but looking right — presumably at Bertha, but perhaps also at his employer since Tackleton has arrived by the time we actually encounter the illustration. Whereas previous illustrators placed father and daughter in the midst of a crowded toy manufactory with the work table between father and daughter. Consequently, Furniss is tightly focussing on the face and figure of Caleb, emphasizing his partially bald head, white hair, and apron.
Left: John Leech's Caleb at Work (1845); right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Caleb Plummer and Bertha (1867).
Left: E. A. Abbey's "Halloo! Hallo!" Said Caleb. "I shall be vain presently!" (1876); right, Fred Barnard's After dinner, Caleb sang the song about the Sparkling Bowl (1878).
Bolton, H. Phili "The Cricket on the Hearth." Dickens Dramatized. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987, 273-95.
Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio U. , 1980.
Dickens, Charles. The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In. Illustrated by John Leech, Richard Doyle, Daniel Maclise, and Clarkson Stanfield. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1844 [dated 1845].
__________. The Christmas Books. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Company, 1910, VIII, 79-157.
__________. The Christmas Books. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 16 vols. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
__________. Christmas Books. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1878.
__________. Christmas Stories. Illustrated by E. A. Abbey. The Household Edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1876.
Thomas, Deborah A. Chapter 4, "The Chord of the Christmas Season." Dickens and The Short Story. Philadelphia: U. Pennsylvania Press, 1982, 62-93.
Created 1 July 2013
Last modified 2 January 2020