Sketches by Boz / Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi
By Charles Dickens (“Boz”)
London: Chapman & Hall, 1868 / George Routledge & Sons, 1869
Illustrated by George Cruikshank
⸻
This elegantly bound volume brings together two foundational works by Charles Dickens, both enriched by the brilliant illustration of George Cruikshank, whose visual style helped define Victorian satire.
• Sketches by Boz, Dickens’ earliest prose collection, captures the texture of everyday London life in richly observed vignettes. Though the title page notes eight illustrations, this copy has been extra-illustrated with forty plates by Cruikshank, making it an unusually full and visually engaging version.
• Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, edited by Dickens, tells the poignant and theatrical life story of the great Regency clown. This 1869 edition includes ten illustrations by Cruikshank, including a frontispiece portrait and nine lively scenes, blending humor and sentiment in the artist’s signature style.
⸻
Bound in half deep green calf over pebbled cloth boards, the spine features raised bands and decorative gilt tooling, with marbled endpapers and all edges marbled. The craftsmanship is refined and cleanly executed, giving the book strong visual appeal.
Affixed to the front endpaper is a 1912 Dickens Centenary commemorative stamp, titled “A Tribute to Genius”, and on the rear endpaper is a printed song, “Tippitywitchet”—a comic tune famously associated with Grimaldi’s stage career.
⸻
Significance
This pairing of works unites Dickens’ social realism with his theatrical sensibility, all through the lens of one of the greatest 19th-century illustrators. With enhanced visual content and unique period ephemera, this is a highly presentable and collectible volume.
Sketches by Boz / Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi
By Charles Dickens (“Boz”)
London: Chapman & Hall, 1868 / George Routledge & Sons, 1869
Illustrated by George Cruikshank
⸻
This elegantly bound volume brings together two foundational works by Charles Dickens, both enriched by the brilliant illustration of George Cruikshank, whose visual style helped define Victorian satire.
• Sketches by Boz, Dickens’ earliest prose collection, captures the texture of everyday London life in richly observed vignettes. Though the title page notes eight illustrations, this copy has been extra-illustrated with forty plates by Cruikshank, making it an unusually full and visually engaging version.
• Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, edited by Dickens, tells the poignant and theatrical life story of the great Regency clown. This 1869 edition includes ten illustrations by Cruikshank, including a frontispiece portrait and nine lively scenes, blending humor and sentiment in the artist’s signature style.
⸻
Bound in half deep green calf over pebbled cloth boards, the spine features raised bands and decorative gilt tooling, with marbled endpapers and all edges marbled. The craftsmanship is refined and cleanly executed, giving the book strong visual appeal.
Affixed to the front endpaper is a 1912 Dickens Centenary commemorative stamp, titled “A Tribute to Genius”, and on the rear endpaper is a printed song, “Tippitywitchet”—a comic tune famously associated with Grimaldi’s stage career.
⸻
Significance
This pairing of works unites Dickens’ social realism with his theatrical sensibility, all through the lens of one of the greatest 19th-century illustrators. With enhanced visual content and unique period ephemera, this is a highly presentable and collectible volume.