Charles Dickens Gallery

'Ipswich: Mr Pickwick outsideThe Ancient House', LNER poster, 1928

Poster produced for the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) to promote rail travel to the Suffolk county town of Ipswich, which appeared as a location in Charles Dickens' (1812-1870) novel 'The Pickwick Papers' (1836). The character, Mr Pickwick, is shown processing through the streets in a sedan chair, while the town's famous 'Ancient House' (built 1567) is seen in the background. Artwork by Fred Taylor, who was commissioned in 1930 to design four ceiling paintings for the Underwriting Room at Lloyd's and murals for Reed's Lacquer Room. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and other London galleries and worked for LNER, London Transport and several shipping companies

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Humour social comment the ale house cartoon by Cruikshank

This is a cartoon etching by the well-known Victorian social caricaturist / cartoonist George Cruikshank (1792 - 1878), dated 1832. The Ale House is one of two panels that belong side-by-side, and this is number 1 of 2. Its companion is called The Home. (1832 is actually in the reign of Queen Victoria's predecessor, William IV.) Amongst other things, Cruikshank provided book illustrations for Charles Dickens. (Title) The Ale House. Most of the men are smoking pipes, and a smoky fug pervades the sketch. On the table is a jug of ale and a variety of drinking vessels, no two the same. On the wall are pictures of cock fighting and dog fighting, two activities that now are frowned upon (although even today, in the USA, it is reported that there are around 40, 000 people professionally involved in such 'sport'). Overall, there is a bright atmosphere of drunken revelry, to contrast with the grim darkness of the companion sketch The Home. Designed Etched & Published byGeorge Cruikshank. Septr. 1st 1832

© Whiteway

Scene from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843. Artist: John Leech

Scene from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843. The irascible, curmudgeonly Ebenezer Scrooge, sitting alone on Christmas Eve, is visited by the ghost of Marley, his late business partner. The same night he is visited by three more apparitions, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future, whose revelations cause him to wake on Christmas Day a changed man. He sends a turkey to Bob Cratchit his clerk, thoroughly enjoys the festivities and becomes a kindly, jolly old man. From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. (London, 1843). This was the first in the series of five Christmas books Dickens published

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