Description:

Striking, huge signed image of Dickens at his desk doing what he did best - writing! Probably the finest known.

CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) Photograph Signed "Charles Dickens" with six-loop flourish under the signature. Oval image, 5.5" x 7.5", affixed to 9.75" x 11.5" matte. Captioned beneath the lower edge of the photograph "Herbert Watkins , Photographer, 215, Regent St." Matte professionally restored with minor flaws not near photograph or magnificent signature.

Noted in ink in the lower left of the matte: "This Portrait belonged to / Albert Smith and was bought at / the sale of his widow’s effects / June 1870. T. Lace Caley." Coincidentally, Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870. Thomas Lace Caley was Secretary of the Autotype Fine Art Company Limited.

Albert Smith (1816-1860) was an author, humorist, and lecturer. He also adapted some of Charles Dickens's stories for the stage such as "Cricket on the Hearth. Or, A Fairy Tale of Home. A Drama, In Three Acts. Dramatized by Albert Smith, Esq., By the Express Permission of the Author." It was produced at the Surrey Theatre in 1845. In 1859, Smith married former actress Mary Lucy Keeley (1830-1870). This signed photograph belonging to her husband was sold as part of her estate.

An albumen print of this image, identified as being photographed by Watkins in 1858, is in the collection at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

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June 21, 2016 10:30 AM EDT
Wilton, CT, US

University Archives

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