Notes on David Copperfield Illustrations

I. Primary Sources

Columbia contains two books considered first editions.

Both of these are in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library under the same call number (although they are quite different objects): B 825 D55 P6 1850.

Identifier	Description
N (Copy 2)*	Book contains the original blue serial covers (a.k.a. wrappers) and Copperfield Advertiser pages, which are bound at the back following the novel’s text. [contains a book plate: presented by Morton Pepper] This will be abbreviated as “N” (for numbers).
BE (Copy 3)	A book that appears to be the first edition as issued from the printer. Green cloth binding, errata sheet, with correction of “screwed” vs. original “screamed” on line 20, page 132. [contains a book plate: presented by Gordon N. Ray] This will be abbreviated as “BE” for (book edition).

*Note: RBML does not identify a text associated with “copy one.”

The Morgan Library holds both loose numbers and bound books in their collections, all, considered first editions. The books in the Morgan Holdings are distinguished by Accession Numbers:

Accession #	Description
PML 25091	The full run of all 20 loose numbers. They are intact, in good condition, with advertisements.
PML 132162	A book that appears to be the first edition as issued from the printer. Green cloth binding, errata sheet, with correction of “screwed” vs. original “screamed” on line 20, page 132.
Hein 0685A	A book containing the original numbers, with covers bound in the back, and a few selections of advertisements. It has been recently re-bound in red morocco.

The Morgan also contains two other copies dated 1850 that I did not have the opportunity to examine. These are: PML 132120-38, which is listed in the catalog as a second set of 20 loose parts (currently in conservation as of July 2011), and PML 6635, a bound edition which does not contain wrappers or advertisements.

Four of the steels from the original plates are also in the Morgan Library’s collection: the frontispiece and title page (both contained in the final number of the series), “Steerforth and Mr. Mell,” and “Mr. Micawber delivers some valedictory remarks.”

II. The Illustrations of David Copperfield

David Copperfield was issued in serial monthly numbers beginning in May 1849, and culminating with a double issue in November 1850. Each issue featured illustrations by Hablot Knight Browne, or “Phiz,” as he was best known. A subscriber to David Copperfield received each new installment of the series in its distinctive blue wrapper, which included an advertising insert that flanked the front and back of the issue. In each serial issue, the illustrations were placed immediately after the front pages of the advertising insert and before the text itself. Because the reader would likely view the illustrations as they opened the number, Browne’s illustrations could reveal salient points of the narrative to the reader well before they encountered a word of Dickens’ text. A reader anxious to learn the outcome of Little Em'ly, Mr. Peggotty, or Steerforth might glean an inkling of their fate just from the opening plates. In this regard, the Phiz illustrations might be thought of as a “spoiler,” framing the reader’s perception of the incidents in the narrative.

The conditions of mid-century printing also led to an interesting phenomenon in regard to the Copperfield illustrations. Even among original numbers issued simultaneously, the images slightly differ from one copy to another. This was due to the complex material process that transformed a sketch to printed matter. Browne documented the procedure he utilized when working with Dickens. Phiz submitted initial sketches to Dickens based on a sample or preview of the content of the coming number. Once the sketch was approved–or altered based on the author’s feedback–Browne would create a more detailed illustration. This illustration was then transferred onto the surface of the steel, which had been treated with an acid-resistant coating. The lines of the illustration were traced with an engraver; the points where the engraver made contact removed the coating and exposed the steel. The steel plate was then treated with a series of acid baths—a procedure known as “biting in.” In a series of multiple acid baths, the fine lines of the illustrations were burned into the steel. (Steig 17)

While steel was the common material used for etching, steel plates (as opposed to earlier copperplate or wood) deteriorated quickly. The printing process subjected the steel plates to considerable wear-and-tear. (need page?) For this reason, multiple plates were commonly made for the same illustration. For David Copperfield, Browne etched two steels for each of the 40 illustrations. (Johannsen v) Therefore, 80 different images exist for the work. It is unclear whether the differences occur as the result of Browne creating plates from two individually drawn images, or from the handwork done in the various stages of etching, where details to the working image might be added in the transfer or the retouching stage. Michael Steig, in his book Dickens and Phiz, notes one illustration from The Pickwick Papers where the images are clearly drawn from two separate sketches. The resulting images differ considerably more, however, than what we see among copies of David Copperfield. However, Steig also provides evidence for Phiz adding details in the later stages of the illustration process, such as when the images are being transferred onto the plate. There is no evidence that the different steels were used in any particular sequence. (Johannsen v) My own comparison of editions of David Copperfield revealed a seemingly ad-hoc mixture among first book editions as well as loose numbers.

For the most part, each pair of images appears remarkably similar. The different source steels are most easily identified by variances in Phiz's signature: either by variations in the shape of a flourish, or on some of the steels, the lack of a signature altogether. Other differences may be discerned in elements like the length of a line, the shading on a background surface or a flight of stairs–things that the eye might barely register even when the images are viewed side by side. But some of the “duplicate” images display variances that are more significant than a mere background shade or the curve of a flourish. Some images feature subtle alterations to facial expressions. One illustration features a letter below Annie Strong’s feet, while the “duplicate” does not. Another illustration, “Traddles and I, in conference with the Misses Spenlow” includes captions on the paintings that hang on the walls of the Spenlow home. However, only one version labels the paintings with “Sancho Panza” and “The Last Appeal” while the duplicate contains no such labels. (This, of course, when Traddles accompanies David to appeal to Dora’s aunts for her hand.)

But how might this labeling affect reception of the image? The words under a painting encourage the viewer to “read” the image in a certain way. The inclusion of such captions can also make iconography of an image more overt. For instance, we can see such an instance among the images for “Mr. Peggotty’s dream comes true,” which depicts the final resolution of Peggotty’s search for Em’ly. One version of the image features a paper on the floor of Em’ly’s room with the heading “THEARE, next to a mask. However, in another version of the image, the paper reads “BAL.” “THEA[t]RE,” could make Em’ly’s connection to the theatre—and the less-than-reputable activities associated with the stage–more explicit.

Robert Patten, who has written extensively on the illustrations in Dickens’s works, states that Browne’s images should not be considered secondary to the text but rather an “indispensable, integral part” of the reader’s experience. Patten claims the interactions between image and word in Dickens’s serial novels create “resonant dialogues between pictures and text.” (“Serial Illustration and Storytelling in David Copperfield” 128) [verify PAGE] But, if the images from one copy to another are unstable, do these dialogues change? Differences in small details would not necessarily create two radically different stories. But the significance of these differences may depend on our how we consider the everyday objects of the novel more broadly. One prominent view of the novel maintains that the small details of the novel are always insignificant, but their very presence offers “l’effet de reel.” In this regard, seemingly insignificant details of the illustrations perform an important function. The tiny details may be barely perceptible, but altering them may alter the texture of the novel as a whole.

Therefore, the presence of a letter on the floor in one image, and the absence of the letter in another, may affect the way one “reads” the novel. And given the placement of the illustrations in the original publications, the illustrations can predetermine the reception of the story. Browne's illustrations—and the specific details one might read within them—could create the first, and perhaps most lasting impression.

Annotated Bibliography:

Johannsen, Albert K. Phiz: Illustrations of the Novels of Charles Dickens. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1956

Johannsen’s work reproduces copies of all of the images – and identifies their main variances – for the seven novels that Phiz illustrated for Charles Dickens. Johannsen has compared numerous editions that may all be rightly classified as “first editions.” For all the Phiz-illustrated novels, Johannsen reproduces the plates and records many of the notable variances between the illustrations. Johannsen also located a number of steels that remain intact to corroborate the images he found in his comparison.

Johannsen notes that variances between some of the images that appear in Pickwick have been “thoroughly studied” but claims that attention should be paid other images within the text, as well as images of other novels. While some consider the discrepancies insignificant, Johannsen contends that there are “considerable differences in some plates” worthy of further analysis.

Patten, Robert L.
Charles Dickens and his Publishers. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1978

“Serial Illustration and Storytelling in David Copperfield” in The Victorian Printed Book. Editor Richard Maxwell. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002

Charles Dickens and his Publishers documents the publishing history of Dickens’s entire career. Patten’s book contains detailed information about Dickens interaction with his publishers, as well as appendices featuring the sales and printing statistics of each publication. In addition to its details of the publishing history of Dickens works, it is equally valuable for its insight into the practices and processes surrounding the Victorian book as a whole.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1978

Michael Steig offers an in-depth view of the printing process that Browne employed, to which my summary is largely indebted. Steig also examined the working sketches and transfer sheets that were used to imprint the steels. Steig asserts that “subtleties of composition and detail” reveal a “high degree of commitment on Browne’s part to the craft he is pursuing- providing a running commentary, in visual language, upon the verbal text.” (34) Steig suggests that the differences between two steels can “bear upon Phiz’s conception of the illustration.” (33) Steig also notes that the frontispiece and title page “function both retroactively and anticipatively.” (43)