Dickens's "Little Nell and Her Grandfather in the Shop" by Harold Copping (1893)

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Little Nell and Her Grandfather in the Shop

Harold Copping

1893

Photographic reproduction of line drawing

12.7 x 8.8 cm (5 ⅛ by 3 ⅜ inches), vignetted

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Here the illustrator of the more sentimental aspects of Dickens's child characters depicts the Victorian reading public's enduring favourite, the resourceful and resilient Little Nell from The Old Curiosity Shop, serialised in Master Humphrey's Clock (1840-41). [Commentary continued below.]

Scanned image, caption, and commentary below by Philip V. Allingham

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Passage Illustrated: Nell helps her Grandfather recover after a fever

At length the old man began to mend, but his mind was weakened. He would sit for hours together, with Nell's small hand in his, playing with the fingers, and sometimes stopping to smooth her hair or kiss her brow; and when he saw that tears were glistening in her eyes he would look amazed. As the time drew near when they must leave the house, he made no reference to the necessity of finding other shelter. An indistinct idea he had, that the child was desolate, and in need of help; though he seemed unable to contemplate their real position more distinctly. But a change came upon him one evening, as he and Nell sat quietly together. [Mary Angela Dickens et al., "Little Nell and Her Grandfather," pp. 135-136]

Earlier Illustrations of Little Nell and Grandfather Trent (1840-1910)

Above: The style of the leading member of the team of illustrators, Cattermole, was ideally to the subject of the atmospheric, slightly menacing interior of the London antique shop that gives the Dickens's fourth novel its title, The door being opened, the child addressed him as her grandfather (Part 1: 25 April 1840).

Left: The Darley frontispiece for the first volume in the James G. Gregory edition "Do I love thee, Nell," said he; "say I do love thee, Nell, or not?" (1861). Centre: Kyd's Player's Cigarette Card, no. 22, Nell (1910). Right: George Cattermole's woodblock engraving of Nell's comforting her grandfather in the shop: "Mr. Daniel Quilp, having entered unseen, was looking on with his accustomed grin." (20 June 1840).

Various Artists' Illustrations for Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop (1841-1924)

The Old Curiosity Shop Illustrated: A Team Effort by "The Clock Works."
George Cattermole (13 plates selected)
Hablot Knight Browne (61 wood-engravings)
Felix O. C. Darley (4 photogravure plates)
Sol Eytinge, Jr. (12 wood engravings)
Thomas Worth (54 wood engravings)
Charles Green (39 wood engravings)
W. H. C. Groome (8 lithographs plus engraved title)
J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") (13 lithographs from watercolours)
Harry Furniss (31 lithographs plus engraved title)

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). London: Chapman and Hall, 1841. Rpt., 1849 by Bradbury and Evans (3 vols. in 2).

_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Thomas Worth. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Bros., 1872. I.

_____. The Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Charles Green. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1876.

Dickens, Mary Angela, Percy Fitzgerald, Captain Edric Vredenburg, and Others. Illustrated by Harold Copping with eleven coloured lithographs. Children's Stories from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1893.

Matz, B. W., and Kate Perugini; illustrated by Harold Copping. Character Sketches from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924. Copy in the Paterson Library, Lakehead University.

Created 25 September 2023