Bob Sawyer by J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") for the 1910 watercolour series: reproduced on John Player cigarette card no. 19: Ninety-two Characters from Dickens: The Pickwick Papers. 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.]
BOB SAWYER (The Pickwick Papers)
Genial Bob! rollicking Robert! the medical student of a bygone age; the impecunious "Sawbones in trainin'," speedily to develop into "Sawyer — late Nockemorf, "full-fledged practitioner, with chronic leaning towards alcoholic stimulus and proneness to lay bare the "tricks of the trade." [Verso of Card No. 19]
Kyd's representations are largely based on the original illustrations by Phiz and Seymour, although the modelling of the figures is suggestive of Phiz's own, expanded series for Household Edition volume of 1874. Only those familiar with the 1874 and the original Pickwick illustrations by Phiz would connect Kyd's roistering young imbiber in the checked trousers with Dickens's medical student turned apothecary in Conviviality at Bob Sawyer's (Chapter XXXVIII, Part 14; May 1837) and Mr. Bob Sawyer's Mode of Travelling (Chapter L, Part 18; October 1837) — the uproarious medical school dropout who provides so much comic relief after the satire of the legal system on display in the trial of Bardell versus Pickwick.
Passage Realialised: A Portrait of an Alcoholic Medical Student
Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s dual portrait of uproarious Bob and subdued Ben in the Mr. Bob Sawyer and Mr. Ben Allen in Chapter XXXVIII (The Diamond Edition, 1867).
Mr. Bob Sawyer, who was habited in a coarse, blue coat, which, without being either a greatcoat or a surtout, partook of the nature and qualities of both, had about him that sort of slovenly smartness, and swaggering gait, which is peculiar to young gentlemen who smoke in the streets by day, shout and scream in the same by night, call waiters by their Christian names, and do various other acts and deeds of an equally facetious description. He wore a pair of plaid trousers, and a large, rough, double-breasted waistcoat; out of doors, he carried a thick stick with a big top. He eschewed gloves, and looked, upon the whole, something like a dissipated Robinson Crusoe. [Chapter XXX, "How the Pickwickians made and cultivated the Acquaintance of a Couple of Nice Young Men belonging to One of the Liberal Professions; How They Disported Themselves on the Ice; and How Their First Visit Came to a Conclusion," 203 in the Household Edition]
The Various Depictions of Bob Sawyer and Ben Allen in Other Editions (1837-1910)
Left: Thomas Nast's American Household Edition's engraving for the Chapter XXXV, "Bless my soul," everybody says, "somebody taken suddenly ill! Sawyer, late Nockemorf, sent for!" (1873). Right: Thomas Onwhyn's "extra" steel engraving for Chapter L (April 1837) shows Mr. Winkle, Sr., interviewing Bob Sawyer and Ben Allen: Mr. Bob Sawyer whose wit had lain dormant. . . .. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Left: Harry Furniss's version of the aftermath of the apothecaries' entertaining Winkle in Bristol: for Bob Sawyer's Party (1910). Centre: Phiz's Household Edition original May 1837 steel engraving, Conviviality at Bob Sawyer's. Right: Phiz's 1874 Household Edition illustration of the medical students' entertaining Mr. Winkle in the apothecary shop: Mr. Bob Sawyer's boy . . . . peeped through the glass door in Chapter XXXVIII. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
The Characters of Charles Dickens pourtrayed in a series of original watercolours by “Kyd.” London, 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 Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, R. W. Buss, and Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837). London: Chapman & Hall: April 1836 through November 1837.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. 1.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 22 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 2.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 5.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 16 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 4.
_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.
Hill, Elizabeth W., and Martha H. Starr. "Sam Weller." A Dickens Day Book. Washington, DC: Starrhill Press, 1987. Cover, and p. 5.
Created 6 January 2015
Last updated 13 July 2025