"Captain Cuttle Reading" — Title-page & vignette by W. L. Sheppard for Dickens's "Dombey and Son" (American Household Edition, 1873)

Captain Cuttle Reading by W. L. Sheppard. Second illustration for Dickens's Dombey and Son in the American Household Edition (1873), facing the frontispiece. Vignette is 6.5 x 5.5 cm (2 ½ by 2 ⅛ inches). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Context of the Illustration

Felix Octavius Carr Darley's portrait of the old salt, At this stage of her recovery Captain Cuttle . . . took his own [watch] down from the mantel-shelf (Vol. 4, 1862).

The Captain was one of those timber-looking men, suits of oak as well as hearts, whom it is almost impossible for the liveliest imagination to separate from any part of their dress, however insignificant. Accordingly, when Walter knocked at the door, and the Captain instantly poked his head out of one of his little front windows, and hailed him, with the hard glared hat already on it, and the shirt-collar like a sail, and the wide suit of blue, all standing as usual, Walter was as fully persuaded that he was always in that state, as if the Captain had been a bird and those had been his feathers. [Chapter IX, "In which the Wooden Midshipman gets into Trouble," 54]

Commentary: A Brilliant Comic Creation

Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond Edition portrait of the retired sailor, surrounded by memorabilia of a lifetime's voyages, Captain Cuttle (1867).

Sheppard, an American Civil War veteran, seems to have been much more attracted to Dickens's brilliantly conceived comic character, the redoubtable Captain Cuttle, than to any other character in the novel's extensive cast: the genial old salt appears in eleven of the sixty-one illustrations. Dickens's original illustrator, Hablot Knight Browne, in Profound Cogitation of Captain Cuttle (Part 5: February 1847) includes both the philosophical merchant seaman and his protegé, Walter Gay, whom Dickens gradually develops into the picaresque hero of the nineteen-part novel. In this 1873 cameo, Sheppard focuses on the Captain as a reader, holding down the page with his hook. The illustration thus seems to be a visual allusion to the April 1848 Chapman and Hall title-page, whose vignette involves the act of reading, but which also includes a wealth of detail about the genial old salt's living accommodations (see below).

Phiz's title-page and vignette designed for the final instalment of the novel, (Parts 1920, April 1848): Rob the Grinder Reading with Captain Cuttle.

Images of the Jolly Tar from Other Editions (1846 to 1877)

Left: Phiz's initial portrait of one of Dickens's most loveable characters: Profound Cogitation of Captain Cuttle with Walter Gaye (Chapter 15, February 1847). Left of centre: Phiz delights in the farcical situation of Mrs. McStinger's pursuit of the Captain in The Midshipman is boarded by the Enemy (Chapter 39, October 1847). Right of centre: Humorous detail of Bunsby's wedding day: Another Wedding (Chapter 60, April 1848). Right: Fred Barnard's Household Edition portrait of Captain Cuttle for an outing with Walter Gaye in the London streets as a thorough Old Salt in Before they had gone very far, they encountered a woman selling flowers; when the captain, stopping short, as if struck by a happy idea, made a purchase of the largest bundle in her basket (Chapter 15, 1877).

Related Material, including Other Illustrated Editions of Dombey and Son (1846-1924)

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

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. L. Sheppard. The Household Edition. 18 vols. New York: Harper & Co., 1873.

_______. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1862. Vols. 1-4.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. III.

_______. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard [62 composite wood-block engravings]. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. With illustrations by H. K. Browne. The illustrated library Edition. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, c. 1880. Vol. II.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. 61 wood-engravings. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

__________. Dombey and Son> Illustrated by W. H. C. Groome. London and Glasgow, 1900, rpt. 1934. 2 vols. in one.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 9.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). 8 coloured plates. London and Edinburgh: Caxton and Ballantyne, Hanson, 1910.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). The Clarendon Edition, ed. Alan Horsman. Oxford: Clarendon, 1974.

"Dombey and Son — Sixty-two Illustrations by Fred Barnard." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, Being Eight Hundred and Sixty-six Drawings by Fred Barnard, Gordon Thomson, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), J. McL. Ralston, J. Mahoney, H. French, Charles Green, E. G. Dalziel, A. B. Frost, F. A. Fraser, and Sir Luke Fildes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1907.

Created 23 December 2021