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“Well, I’ll bet you half a dozen of claret,” said Wilkins Flasher, Esquire.
Thomas Onwhyn [“TO del”]
steel engraving
12.3 cm high by 10.6 cm wide (4 ¾ by 4 ⅛ inches), vignetted
Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Chapter LV, “Mr. Solomon Pell, Assisted by a Select Committee of Coachmen, Arranges the Affairs of the Elder Mr. Weller,” facing 591.
[Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
The office of Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, of the Stock Exchange, was in a first floor up a court behind the Bank of England; the house of Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, was at Brixton, Surrey; the horse and stanhope of Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, were at an adjacent livery stable; the groom of Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, was on his way to the West End to deliver some game; the clerk of Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, had gone to his dinner; and so Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, himself, cried, ‘Come in,’ when Mr. Pell and his companions knocked at the counting-house door.
‘Good-morning, Sir,’ said Pell, bowing obsequiously. ‘We want to make a little transfer, if you please.’
‘Oh, just come in, will you?’ said Mr. Flasher. ‘Sit down a minute; I’ll attend to you directly.’
‘Thank you, Sir,’ said Pell, ‘there’s no hurry. Take a chair, Mr. Weller.’
Mr. Weller took a chair, and Sam took a box, and the umpires took what they could get, and looked at the almanac and one or two papers which were wafered against the wall, with as much open-eyed reverence as if they had been the finest efforts of the old masters.
‘Well, I’ll bet you half a dozen of claret on it; come!’ said Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, resuming the conversation to which Mr. Pell’s entrance had caused a momentary interruption.
This was addressed to a very smart young gentleman who wore his hat on his right whisker, and was lounging over the desk, killing flies with a ruler. Wilkins Flasher, Esquire, was balancing himself on two legs of an office stool, spearing a wafer-box with a penknife, which he dropped every now and then with great dexterity into the very centre of a small red wafer that was stuck outside. Both gentlemen had very open waistcoats and very rolling collars, and very small boots, and very big rings, and very little watches, and very large guard-chains, and symmetrical inexpressibles, and scented pocket-handkerchiefs.
‘I never bet half a dozen!’ said the other gentleman. ‘I’ll take a dozen.’ [Chapter LV, “Mr. Solomon Pell, Assisted by a Select Committee of Coachmen, Arranges the Affairs of the Elder Mr. Weller,” 591.
“Well, I’ll bet you half a dozen of claret,” said Wilkins Flasher, Esquire_ This was addressed to a very smart young gentleman who wore his hat on his right whisker, and was lounging over the desk killing flies with a ruler.” Page 591.
The Wellers' journey to the office of financial broker Wilkins Flasher, in the same London building as the Bank of England, begins with the probate of the will of the late Mrs. Weller under the supervision of a lawyer from the Insolvent Court, Mr. Solomon Pell, introduced in Chapter XLIII. The trio have arrived at Flasher's office to convert Mrs. Weller's investments into cash. Of course, Mr. Pell is going to charge significant fees in return for his legal assistance and advice about the management of the thousand-pound estate.
However, Onwhyn seems much more interested in the elegantly attired Wilkins Flasher (as in "flash" dresser) and his equally fashionable friend smashing flies with a ruler, Frank Simmery, who seems obsessed with making personal wagers. In Flasher's inner sanctum, Tony Weller signs the documents; he then receives eleven hundred and eighty hundred pounds, after Pell's account has been settled. At the desk in Flasher's office, left, are the handsome broker and, in hat and large whiskers, Simmery; Sam is instantly recognizable, down left, and Tony Weller, seated next to Pell, right. The other two figures are coachmen, friends of Tony Weller who are serving as witnesses to the proceedings. The figures seem more refined and realistic but far less comedic than those of Phiz's comparable illustration, Mr. Weller and his friends drinking to Mr. Pell, and Onwhyn's Tony does not much resemble Phiz's, except in girth. However, Onwhyn probably had the benefit of seeing Phiz's plate since the novel appeared in volume form on 17 November 1837.
Left: Phiz's original engraving for the conclusion of the serial novel, Mr. Weller and his friends drinking to Mr. Pell (November 1837). Right: Phiz's Household Edition woodcut reworks his original 1837 steel engraving as The mottled-faced gentleman reviewed the company, and slowly lifted his hand! (1874). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).
_______. The Pickwick Papers. Illustrated by Phiz. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 6.
Titley, Graham D. C. "Thomas Onwhyn: a Life in Illustration (1811-1886)." Pearl. University of Plymouth (2018-07-12).
Created 29 February 2024