[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Henry Furniss —> Dombey and Son —> Next]
"Joey B."
Harry Furniss
1910
12.4 x 9.9 cm, vignetted
Dickens's Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation, the Charles Dickens Library Edition, IX, facing 97.
"Joey B., Sir," the Major would say, with a flourish of his walking-stick, "is worth a dozen of you. If you had a few more of the Bagstock breed among you, Sir, you’d be none the worse for it."[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Although Major Bagstock had arrived at what is called in polite literature, the grand meridian of life, and was proceeding on his journey downhill with hardly any throat, and a very rigid pair of jaw-bones, and long-flapped elephantine ears, and his eyes and complexion in the state of artificial excitement already mentioned, he was mightily proud of awakening an interest in Miss Tox, and tickled his vanity with the fiction that she was a splendid woman who had her eye on him. This he had several times hinted at the club: in connexion with little jocularities, of which old Joe Bagstock, old Joey Bagstock, old J. Bagstock, old Josh Bagstock, or so forth, was the perpetual theme: it being, as it were, the Major’s stronghold and donjon-keep of light humour, to be on the most familiar terms with his own name.
"Joey B., Sir," the Major would say, with a flourish of his walking-stick, "is worth a dozen of you. If you had a few more of the Bagstock breed among you, Sir, you’d be none the worse for it. Old Joe, Sir, needn’t look far for a wife even now, if he was on the look-out; but he’s hard-hearted, Sir, is Joe — he’s tough, Sir, tough, and de-vilish sly!" After such a declaration, wheezing sounds would be heard; and the Major’s blue would deepen into purple, while his eyes strained and started convulsively. [Chapter 7, "A Bird’s-eye Glimpse of Miss Tox’s Dwelling-place: also of the State of Miss Tox’s Affections," 89]
Left: Phiz's March 1847 introduction of the superannuated Major in the nineteenth chapter, Major Bagstock is delighted to have the Opportunity. Centre: Phiz's second study of the Major, Chapter 26: "Joe B. Is Sly, Sir, Devilish Sly" (June 1847). Right: Sol Eytinge, Junior's study of the bluff retired military man and his colonial servant: Major Bagstock and The Native (1867).
Left: Fred Barnard's introduction of the scarlet Major: "Take advice from plain old Joe, and never educate that sort of people, sir." (1877). Right: Clayton J. Clarke's Player's Cigarette Card No. 7 watercolour study: Major Bagstock (1910).
Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. 61 wood-engravings. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.
_______. Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. IX.
Last modified 24 December 2019
