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(DICKENS). [DOYLE, RICHARD?] (Illustrator). "The Dickens Album." Ca. 1860s. Germany: Hove, [1860s]. 17 pp. 8.5" x 11.". Orig. royal blue velvet cover with tin repousse tips and a fig branch. Nine (9) pages of watercolor illustrations, with 44 separate pictures, most containing two or three Dickensian figures. Velvet worn at edges, colors bright. Slight spine separation, tip wear, browning. Flower patterned gilt endpapers. 1/8 in. thick pages with cut outs for photos (no photos); ovals, rectangles, etc. $1,500.00

 

A beautiful and apparently quite rare (we can locate no other copies) of a photograph album decorated with illustrations from Dickens' novels. The title page "The Charles Dickens Album" has illustrations from Pickwick Club, and succeeding pages are illustrated with vignettes from Nicholas Nickleby, A Tale of Two Cities, Martin Chuzzlewit, Bleak House, Oliver Twist, Little Dorrit, David Copperfield, and Barnaby Rudge. There are no photographs in the cabinet or oval-shaped openings.

Research into Dickens' illustrators shows that the illustrator may be Richard Doyle, since the watercolors appear to be his style. Doyle was the son of the cartoonist, John Doyle, and was born in London in 1824.

In 1842 John Doyle began working for Punch and by 1848 he was producing a third of the cartoons that appeared in Punch. As well as producing political cartoons, Doyle designed the the famous Punch cover that was used by the magazine between 1849 to 1956.

Doyle, like his father, was a devout Roman Catholic, and in 1850 he resigned from Punch in protest over the magazine's hostility to the Pope.

After leaving Punch Doyle concentrated on painting landscapes. However, he did illustrate books including works by Charles Dickens (Battle of Life), John Ruskin (King of the Golden River) William Makepeace Thackeray (Rebecca and Rowena, Newcomes) and Leigh Hunt. Doyle died in 1883.