“Mr. Bob Sawyer whose wit had lain dormant for some minutes, placed his hands upon his knees and made a face after the portraits of the late Mr. Grimaldi as clown.” — Thomas Onwhyn's thirtieth extra illustration for Charles Dickens's "The Pickwick Club" (15 November 1837)

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“Mr. Bob Sawyer whose wit had lain dormant for some minutes, placed his hands upon his knees and made a face after the portraits of the late Mr. Grimaldi as clown.”

Thomas Onwhyn [“TO del”]

steel engraving

12.6 cm high by 11.6 cm wide (4 ¾ by 4 ¼ inches), vignetted

Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Chapter L, “How Mr. Pickwick sped upon his Mission, and how he was reinforced in the outset by a most unexpected Auxiliary,” facing 540.

[Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Pickwick, Sawyer, and Allen confront Mr. Winkle, Senior, at home

The old wharfinger turned the letter over, looked at the front, back, and sides, made a microscopic examination of the fat little boy on the seal, raised his eyes to Mr. Pickwick’s face, and then, seating himself on the high stool, and drawing the lamp closer to him, broke the wax, unfolded the epistle, and lifting it to the light, prepared to read.

Just at this moment, Mr. Bob Sawyer, whose wit had lain dormant for some minutes, placed his hands on his knees, and made a face after the portraits of the late Mr. Grimaldi, as clown. It so happened that Mr. Winkle, senior, instead of being deeply engaged in reading the letter, as Mr. Bob Sawyer thought, chanced to be looking over the top of it at no less a person than Mr. Bob Sawyer himself; rightly conjecturing that the face aforesaid was made in ridicule and derision of his own person, he fixed his eyes on Bob with such expressive sternness, that the late Mr. Grimaldi’s lineaments gradually resolved themselves into a very fine expression of humility and confusion.

‘Did you speak, Sir?’ inquired Mr. Winkle, senior, after an awful silence.

‘No, sir,’ replied Bob, With no remains of the clown about him, save and except the extreme redness of his cheeks.

‘You are sure you did not, sir?’ said Mr. Winkle, senior. [Chapter L, “How Mr. Pickwick sped upon his Mission, and how he was reinforced in the outset by a most unexpected Auxiliary,” 540]

Some Necessary Background: On the Road to Birmingham in Chapter Fifty

Chapter Fifty begins with Pickwick's expressing his determination to persuade Nathaniel Winkle's father, a Birmingham wharf-owner, that he should accept the fact that his son has married Arabella Allen. At Bristol, Pickwick enlists Bob Allen's aid, but Bob Sawyer insists upon closing the dispensary and accompanying them. After a journey full to overflowing with Bob Sawyer's antics on the roof of the chaise, the trio arrive at the Winkle's Birmingham office, the setting of the present scene. Here, Onwhyn complements Phiz's uproariously funny Bob Sawyer's Mode of Travelling, published in the October instalment. Having seen that eighteenth serial instalment, Onwhyn decided to realise the interview between the travellers and Mr. Winkle, Senior, after their one-hundred-and-six mile-journey.

It is past sunset when Pickwick, awaking from a nap, judges from the cinders, murky atmosphere, and brick-dust that they are at last approaching "the great working town of Birmingham." Lurid lights, narrow streets, and the incessant cacophony of machinery give way to well-lighted shops near the Old Royal Hotel where they are to spend the night. According to a waiter, Winkle's "residence" is a mere five hundred yards away. The friends arrive about ten o'clock at the mansion of the wharfinger, an old, red-brick house bearing a brass nameplate. Surprisingly, the maid who answers the door announces that Winkle is just about to have supper; they send up their card, and she returns shortly to usher them into the back-parlour, "half office and half dressing-room," although the illustrator underscores the business-oriented usage of the room, with a large desk, functional chairs, an almanack, a clock, a safe, and books — all mentioned by Dickens. As in the text, the Birmingham industrialist is is a little, old man in a snuff-coloured suit; he is the image of Winkle, Junior, but balding. He has deposited his silver candlestick on the desk as he curiously regards his visitors.

Inauspiciouly, Ben Allen has already fallen asleep, but has not as yet been pinched awake by the jolly Bob. Embarrassed, Pickwick now produces Nathaniel Winkle's letter to his father, and Onwhyn shows the elderly gentlemen, wearing clothing in the style of the last century and sitting on his high-stool (as in the text), perusing it as he studies the sleeping Ben Allen. Having reproved Bob for his Grimaldi antics, Wardle turns his attention to the four-page letter as Pickwick anxiously studies his reaction to the news of his son's marriage. Surprisingly, Wardle Senior dismisses the trio with comment as Arabella's thousand pounds have not impressed him.

Scenes with The Trio on the Road to Birmingham in Other Editions (1837-1910)

Left: Phiz's original engraving for the penultimate instalment of the serial novel, Bob Sawyer's Mode of Travelling (October 1837). Centre: Phiz's Household Edition woodcut reworks his original 1837 steel engraving as Mr. Bob Sawyer was seated: not in the dickey, but on the roof of the chaise (1874). Right: Harry Furniss's humorous revision of an original Phiz illustration of the bibulous physician, Bob Sawyer elevated (1910). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910

Bibliography

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).

_______. 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 Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 6.

_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.

Titley, Graham D. C. "Thomas Onwhyn: a Life in Illustration (1811-1886)." Pearl. University of Plymouth (2018-07-12).

Created 5 March 2024