Mr. Chuckster by J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") for the 1910 watercolour series: reproduced on John Player cigarette card no. 12: Ninety-two Characters from Dickens: The Old Curiosity Shop. 2 ½ inches high by 1 ¼ inches wide (6.3 cm high by 3.3 cm wide). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
MR. CHUCKSTER (The Old Curiosity Shop)
The bosom friend of Mr. Richard Swiveller, and clerk to Witherden, the notary. Has somewhat pronounced ideas regarding his own importance. Can be convivial, even musical, at times, without loss of dignity yet possesses one special weakness — a proud, lofty, and audibly expressed contempt for Snobs! [Verso of Card No. 12]
Mr. Chuckster, a close acquaintance of Dick Swiveller and a fellow member of the bacchanalian Glorious Apollers [Apollos], makes his first appearance in Chapter 14. Undoubtedly this is the moment that Kyd has in mind, for he has depicted the law clerk with a pen (not over his ear, but in his mouth, as if it were a Player's cigarette) and dressed in the manner of the Regency for the street:
‘That was it, you know,’ interposed the same small quiet voice that had spoken once before. ‘I was quite abroad, mother, quite desolate, and to think that the sea was between us — oh, I never shall forget what I felt when I first thought that the sea was between us!’
‘Very natural under the circumstances,’ observed the Notary. ‘Mr. Abel’s feelings did credit to his nature, and credit to your nature, ma’am, and his father’s nature, and human nature. I trace the same current now, flowing through all his quiet and unobtrusive proceedings. — I am about to sign my name, you observe, at the foot of the articles which Mr. Chuckster will witness; and placing my finger upon this blue wafer with the vandyked corners, I am constrained to remark in a distinct tone of voice — don’t be alarmed, ma’am, it is merely a form of law — that I deliver this, as my act and deed. Mr. Abel will place his name against the other wafer, repeating the same cabalistic words, and the business is over. Ha ha ha! You see how easily these things are done!’
There was a short silence, apparently, while Mr Abel went through the prescribed form, and then the shaking of hands and shuffling of feet were renewed, and shortly afterwards there was a clinking of wine-glasses and a great talkativeness on the part of everybody. In about a quarter of an hour Mr. Chuckster (with a pen behind his ear and his face inflamed with wine) appeared at the door, and condescending to address Kit by the jocose appellation of ‘Young Snob,’ informed him that the visitors were coming out. [Chapter The Fourteenth, p. 167, in the 1840 edition of Master Humphrey's Clock, Vol. I]
Commentary: The Old Curiosity Shop has nine cards
Left: Thomas Worth's 1872 rendition of Swiveller's second at The Glorious Apollers, Initial (Ch. 56, American Household Edition).
Appearing among the first twenty of the set of fifty cigarette cards, initially produced in 1910 and reissued in 1923, the appearance of so minor a character as this member of the Glorious Apollos in The Old Curisity Shop (ninth instalment, 4 July 1840) seems decidedly odd. After all, fully fifteen or 30% concern a single novel, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, attesting to the continued popularity of the picaresque comic novel; the other popular titles in Kyd's Player's Cigarette Cards series likewise suggest the turn-of-the century popularity of such early novels as Oliver Twist (cards 1, 2, 3, 4, and 9) and The Old Curiosity Shop: Dick Swiveller, Mr. Chuckster, Nell Trent, Short the puppeteer, his partner Codlin, the villainous Quilp, the witty The Marchioness, Sampson Brass, and his business partner at law Sally Brass (cards 11, 12, 22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31). Since The 'Glorious Apollers' whom Dickens introduces in Chapter XIII — "a select convivial circle called the Glorious Apollers of which [Dick has] the honour to be Perpetual Grand" — are a necessary peer group for the incipient protagonist, Dick Swiveller, perhaps we should not be so surprised that Kyd has included their second-in-command among his Dickens portraits. Since, however, the popular taste in "characters from Dickens" as well as in "novels from Dickens" has changed markedly over the past century, Mr. Chuckster is likely an utterly unknown entity for most modern readers.
Scenes Involving Chuckster by Other Illustrators (1841-1872)
Left: Phiz's representation of Barbara and Chuckster: Farewell to the Travellers (16 January 1841). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s portrait of the egocentric law clerk: Mr. Chuckster (1867). Right: Thomas Worth's American Household Edition realisation of Dick's anniversary dinner with Chuckster (toasting the couple, left) and the Marchioness: Upon every anniversary Mr. Chuckster came to dinner (1872, Ch. 73).
Principal Illustrated Editions of the Novel (1841-1924)
- The Old Curiosity Shop Illustrated: A Team Effort by "The Clock Works" (1841)
- Frontispieces to the three-volume edition of Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop, illustrated by Felix Octavius Carr Darley in the James G. Gregory (New York) Household Edition (1861-71)
- The Old Curiosity Shop by Sol Eytinge, Jr., in the Boston Diamond Edition (1867)
- The Old Curiosity Shop by Thomas Worth in the American Household Edition (1874)
- The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Green in the British Household Edition (1876)
- The Old Curiosity Shop by W. H. C. Groome in the Collins' Clear-Type Press Edition (1900)
- The Old Curiosity Shop by Harry Furniss in the British Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910)
- Harold Copping (2 plates selected)
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images 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.]
Bibliography of Illustrated Editions of The Old Curiosity Shop
The Characters of Charles Dickens pourtrayed in a series of original watercolours by “Kyd.” Lonodn, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, nd. [1910?]
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Old Curiosity Shop in Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Phiz, George Cattermole, Samuel Williams, and Daniel Maclise. 3 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841; rpt., Bradbury and Evans, 1849.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. XII.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Thomas Worth. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Bros., 1872. Vol. I.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Charles Green. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1876. XII.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. With nineteen steel-plate illustrations from original wood-engravings by Phiz and George Cattermole. 2 vols. "New Illustrated Library Edition" of the Works of Charles Dickens. New York: Hurd and Houghton; Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1876. Vols. VI and VII.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by William H. C. Groome. The Collins' Clear-Type Edition. Glasgow & London: Collins, 1900.
_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910. V.
Hammerton, J. A. "XIII. The Old Curiosity Shop." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910. XVII, 170-211.
Vann, J. Don. "The Old Curiosity Shop in Master Humphrey's Clock, 25 April 1840-6 February 1841." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. 64-65.
Created 6January 2015
Last updated 9 July 2025