Author: KYD (pseudonym of Joseph Clayton Clarke); [DICKENS, Charles]
Title: Martin Chuzzlewit. 12 Original Character Studies from Martin Chuzzlewit
Description: [n.p.]: , 1893. A Unique Set of Original Dickens Artwork By The Artful "Kyd" KYD (pseudonym of Joseph Clayton Clarke), artist. [DICKENS, Charles]. 12 Original Character Studies from Martin Chuzzlewit. Drawn in colours by "Kyd". [N.p. n.d, ca. 1893]. Twelve fine original pen-and-ink and watercolor drawings illustrating Martin Chuzzlewit. Quarto (11 1/4 x 8 7/8 inches; 286 x 225 mm.). Twelve original pen, ink and watercolor drawings, each on fine laid paper, and signed by the artist. Original blue wrappers with "12 Original Character Studies from "Martin Chuzzlewit" Drawn in colors by 'Kyd'" in ink manuscript on front wrapper. Manuscript list of characters. A few of the watercolors have light browning in the right hand margins - not affecting images. Wrappers expertly repaired. Housed in a green cloth portfolio. Martin Chuzzlewit follows the Chuzzlewit family's adventures. Riddled with greed, the family constantly mistrusts each other, sometimes unnecessarily. The family patriarch, Old Martin Chuzzlewit, turns his mistrust against the wrong people and is almost killed as a result. KYD has faithfully recreated some of the immortal and lovable characters from one of Charles Dickens most famous novels. The characters of the novel here represented are: Mrs. Sairah Gamp; Mark Tapley; Bailey Junior; Mr. Pecksniff; Mrs. Todgers; Tom Pinch; Charity Pecksniff; Betsey Prig; Montague Tigg; Poll Sweedlepipe; Chevy Slyme & Mercy Pecksniff. Joseph Clayton Clark aka "KYD" (1856-1937) worked as a freelance artist with a particular affection for Dickens, his Dickens illustrations first appearing in 1887 in Fleet Street Magazine, with two collections soon to follow: The Characters of Charles Dickens (1889) and Some Well Known Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens (1892). In the first decade of the twentieth century, five sets of postcards based on his Dickens drawings were published, and seven sets of non-Dickensian comic cards by him were issued. Beginning in the 1920s, he earned his living from watercolor sketches, mainly of Dickens' characters, which he sold to and through the London book trade. Frederic G. Kitton gives him early notice in his classic text, Dickens and His Illustrators (1890); Kyd's watercolors were at that date already being avidly bought by major Dickens collectors (Kitton, p. 233), the Cosens sale in 1890 successfully selling a collection of 241 of Kyd's Dickens watercolors, and Mr. Tom Wilson, at the time the foremost collector of Dickens, possessing 331 of Kyd's drawings. "As a character 'Kyd' emulated those of Dickens and his own illustrations - slightly larger than life. In his style and dress he was mildly flamboyant for the period-He seldom varied his attire from a grey suit, spats, homburg hat, gloves and was never without a carnation or substitute flower in his button hole" (Sawyer, Richard. "Kyd" (Joseph Clayton Clark): A Preliminary Study of his Life and Work Together with an Essay on Fore-Edge Paintings, 1980. p. 7). A superb, singular and most desirable collection of Dickensiana. .

Keywords: [DICKENS, Charles] Nineteenth-Century Literature


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