The Pickwickians

Printed cotton handkerchief on crimson background commemorating the novelist Charles Dickens and his hugely popular Pickwick Papers. The handkerchief is designed by Hablot Knight Browne, or 'Phiz', the original illustrator for the Pickwick Papers. The central image of Dickens based on an engraving by Finden after the portrait by Daniel Maclise of 1839 is surrounded by a wreath depicting all the well loved characters from the papers including Mr Pickwick, top centre and Samuel Weller to his left. Around the border is printed a sepia graphic with, in each of the four corners, a gothic tracery arch with grotesque heads and two goblins pulling back a curtain to show an arrangment of books, the closest with the word 'Boz' on its spine - the pen name of Charles Dickens. In front of the books is an inkwell with two quills and, at the back, a cupid holding a further quill. Such a design is similar to the frontispiece of the 1837 edition of the Pickwick Papers illustrated by Knight Browne. The handkerchief was probably printed in response to the huge demand for all things 'Pickwickian' and may have been part of the regalia acquired by the many Pickwick Clubs that sprang up after publication of the book.