Oliver Twist: 18/24, Mr Fagin and his pupil recovering Nancy

‘Lend a hand to the girl, can’t you?’ replied Sikes impatiently. ‘Don’t stand chattering and grinning at me’. With an exclamation of surprise, Fagin hastened to the girl’s assistance while Mr John Dawkins (otherwise the Artful Dodger) who had followed his venerable friend into the room, hastily deposited on the floor a bundle with which he was laden; and snatching a bottle from the grasp of Master Charles Bates who came close at his heels, uncorked it in a twinkling with his teeth and poured a portion of its contents down the patient’s throat, previously taking a taste himself to prevent mistakes.

George Cruikshank supplied twenty-four engravings for the first edition of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens between February 1837 and April 1839. It was Dickens’s second novel published by Richard Bentley. After Dickens's death in 1870, Cruikshank made the claim that it was he who had originated Oliver Twist , a claim which Dickens's biographer and confidant, John Forster, refuted by referring toDickens's letters.The plates for that novel certainly reflect Cruikshank's extensive knowledge of the London underworld.