"Not such Disagreeable Weather after all—some People Think."
From Punch, August 2nd, 1879.
Writing on the 20th June, in the wet summer of 1879, from 5, Langham Chambers, Portland Place (a studio that he had taken temporarily from an artist friend, Mr. W. J. Hennessy), he heads the letter with the sketch on page [192], which is interesting as the first idea for the drawing which appeared in Punch on the 2nd August, 1879, reproduced on the preceding page by permission of the proprietors.
A Pig of Brittany (Terra-cotta).
The Property of Mr. Armstrong.
The illustration on the opposite page is an example of Caldecott in a style which will be new to most readers. The book plate was drawn for an old and intimate friend in Manchester, and it is curious to note how closely the style of the family crest is followed in its various details. If it were not for certain satirical touches this ingenious design might easily pass for the work of other hands; the touch and treatment have little in common with Caldecott as he is known; but the artistic completeness of the little book plate is another evidence of his power as a designer.