"I made my way back to the 'Dolphin's Head.' In the gateway I found J. Mellows looking at nothing, and apparently experiencing that it failed to raise his spirits.
"'I don't care for the Town,' said J. Mellows, when I complimented him on the sanitary advantage it may or may not possess; 'I wish I had never seen the Town.'"
"The Uncommercial Traveller" (Household Edition).—Charles Dickens.
By E. G. Dalziel.
By permission of Messrs. Chapman & Hall.
When Charles Dickens abandoned the etchings of H. K. Browne as a means of illustrating his books, the next work, "Our Mutual Friend," was placed in the hands of Marcus Stone, whose father, Mr. Frank Stone, A.R.A., had for many years been a next-door neighbour and a very constant friend of Dickens. Some of these drawings, which are marked with all the refinement and good taste of this popular artist, were entrusted to us to engrave.
We were early engaged on the various editions of the works of Charles Dickens, commencing (through our friend, Ebenezer Landells,) with the wood engravings for "Master Humphrey's Clock," which were soon followed by those for the "Christmas Books" from drawings by Richard Doyle, John Leech, and Daniel Maclise.
But by far the most important commission ever placed in our hands by Messrs. Chapman & Hall was the production and entire control of the illustrations for the Household Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens, which was commenced in serial form in 1871 and completed in 1879, thus extending over a period of eight years. The publishers began the issue with "Pickwick," using the original designs by H. K. Browne ("Phiz"), but immediately after this Mr. Frederick Chapman placed the entire control of the illustrations in our hands. We were to find the best artists we considered suitable for the various works. The first selected was James Mahoney, who had already attained some distinction in drawing on wood. He did in all three books, the first being "Oliver Twist," followed by "Little Dorrit" and "Our Mutual Friend." Mahoney had a firm, clear style of manipulation, and no one knew better than he how to make work look solid and firm by leaving large masses of white in his arrangement of colour. He painted some good water colours. We had several small examples, the most important of which is "A Bird of Prey," a repeat of one of his designs for "Our Mutual Friend." Charles Green, R.I., made a beautiful set of illustrations to "The Old Curiosity Shop." Every picture is carefully studied both as to character, scene, and subject; the picture of "Short and Codlin," with Nell and her Grandfather, being one of the most perfect. Green painted many very fine water colour pictures, several of which we were fortunate enough to possess.