SUPPRESSED PLATES
AGENTS
AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD.
27 RICHMOND STREET WEST, TORONTO
INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD.
MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY
309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA
[Illustration: The title-page of the unwritten “Death in London”]
SUPPRESSED PLATES WOOD ENGRAVINGS, &c.
TOGETHER WITH OTHER CURIOSITIES GERMANE THERETO
BEING
AN ACCOUNT OF CERTAIN MATTERS
PECULIARLY ALLURING TO
THE COLLECTOR
BY
GEORGE SOMES LAYARD
[Illustration: (colophon)]
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1907
_Published November 1907_
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
TO
MY TWO BOYS
JOHN AND PETER
WHO
I SINCERELY HOPE, WILL NOT HAVE SO MANY
_USELESS_ HOBBIES
AS
THEIR AFFECTIONATE
FATHER
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTORY . . . 1
2. “THE MARQUIS OF STEYNE” . . . 7
3. THE SUPPRESSED PORTRAIT OF DICKENS, “PICKWICK,” “THE BATTLE OF
LIFE,” AND “GRIMALDI” . . . 26
4. DICKENS CANCELLED PLATES: “OLIVER TWIST,” “MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT,”
“THE STRANGE GENTLEMAN,” “PICTURES FROM ITALY,” AND “SKETCHES BY BOZ”
. . . 43
5. ON SOME FURTHER SUPPRESSED PLATES, ETCHINGS, AND WOOD ENGRAVINGS BY
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK . . . 59
6. HOGARTH’S “ENTHUSIASM DELINEATED,” “THE MAN OF TASTE,” AND “DON
QUIXOTE” . . . 82
7. CANCELLED DESIGNS FOR “PUNCH” AND “ONCE A WEEK” BY CHARLES KEENE
AND FREDERICK SANDYS . . . 127
8. MISCELLANEOUS . . . 149
9. THE SUPPRESSED OMAR KHAYYAM ETCHING . . . 179
10. ADAPTED OR PALIMPSEST PLATES . . . 192
11. ADAPTED OR PALIMPSEST PLATES (_continued_) . . . 226
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_Printed Separately_
The Title-page of the unwritten “Death in London” . . . _Frontispiece_
The Third Marquis of Hertford. (_From the engraving by W. Holl, of
the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence_) . . . _Between pages_ 20
_and_ 21
The Fourth Marquis of Hertford. (_From a photograph_)
. . . _Between pages_ 20 _and_ 21
The Third Marquis of Hertford when Lord Yarmouth. (_From the coloured
caricature by Richard Dighton_) . . . _Facing page_ 24
The suppressed portrait of Charles Dickens . . . _Facing page_ 28
The “Pickwick” suppressed plate: “The Cricket Match.” (_By R. W.
Buss_) . . . _Facing page_ 30
The “Pickwick” suppressed plate: “Tupman and Rachel.” (_By R. W.
Buss_) . . . _Between pages_ 32 _and_ 33
“Tupman and Rachel.” (_By H. K. Browne_) . . . _Between pages_ 32
_and_ 33
“The Last Song,” with the suppressed border (_By George Cruikshank_)
. . . _Facing page_ 40
The suppressed plate from “Oliver Twist” . . . _Facing page_ 48
1. “The Fireside Scene”
2. “The Fireside Scene,” as worked upon by Cruikshank
The suppressed plate from “Sketches by Boz” . . . _Facing page_ 56
“A Financial Survey of Cumberland or the Beggar’s Petition.” (_From
the only known uncoloured impression of the plate_) . . . _Between
pages_ 64 _and_ 65
“A Financial Survey of Cumberland or the Beggar’s Petition.” (_From
a coloured impression of the plate, with the figure of the valet
obliterated with lamp-black_) . . . _Between pages_ 64 _and_ 65
“Enthusiasm Delineated. (Humbly dedicated to his Grace the Arch Bishop
of Canterbury by his Graces most obedient humble Servant _Wm.
Hogarth_”) . . . _Between pages_ 88 _and_ 89
“Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism. A Medley” . . . _Between
pages_ 88 _and_ 89
Portrait of Hogarth with his Dog Trump . . . _Facing page_ 112
_The plate reversed and in its last state, now entitled_ “The Bruiser”
. . . _Facing page_ 112
The Cancelled Cartoon. (_By Charles Keene_) . . . _Facing page_ 128
The Cancelled “Social.” (_By Charles Keene_) . . . _Facing page_ 136
Suggestion by Joseph Crawhall for the Cancelled “Social” . . . _Facing
page_ 136
“The Painted Chamber.” (From _Antiquities of Westminster_, 1807)
. . . _Facing page_ 150
The suppressed portrait of “John Jorrocks, Esq., M.F.H., etc.” (_By
Henry Alken, the younger_) . . . _Facing page_ 160
The suppressed frontispiece for “Omar Khayyam.” (_By Edwin Edwards_)
. . . _Facing page_ 188
“L’Europe alarmée pour le Fils d’un Meunier.” (_The plate in its first
state_) . . . _Between pages_ 204 _and_ 205
_The plate in its second state, now entitled_ “La Cour de Paix
solitaire, entre les Roses piquantes et les Lis” . . . _Between
pages_ 204 _and_ 205
Queen Anne presiding over the House of Lords. (_The plate in its first
state_) . . . _Between pages_ 236 _and_ 237
_The plate in its second state, now representing_ George I. presiding
over the House of Lords . . . _Between pages_ 236 _and_ 237
“The Races of the Europeans, with their Keys.” (_The plate in its
first state_) . . . _Between pages_ 238 _and_ 239
“A Skit on Britain.” (_The plate in its second state_) . . . _Between
pages_ 238 _and_ 239
The Headless Horseman. (_The plate with the head burnished out_)
. . . _Facing page_ 240
The plate with Cromwell’s head . . . _Between pages_ 242 _and_ 243
The plate with Charles I.’s head . . . _Between pages_ 242 _and_ 243
Undescribed palimpsest plate. (_First state and second state_)
. . . _Facing page_ 244
Undescribed palimpsest plate. (_First state and second state_)
. . . _Facing page_ 246
_Printed in the Text_
1. The Suppressed Portrait of the Marquis of Steyne . . . 15
2. The Battle of Life. “Leech’s Grave Mistake” . . . 35
3. Rose Maylie and Oliver at Agnes’s Tomb. (_The substituted plate in
two states_) . . . 51
4. The Strange Gentleman . . . 55
5. “A Trifling Mistake”—Corrected— . . . 71
6. Philoprogenitiveness . . . 77
7. “Drop it!” . . . 79
8. Enlarged detail of Hogarth’s “Enthusiasm Delineated” . . . 85
9. The Chandelier in “Enthusiasm” . . . 95
The Chandelier in “Credulity” . . . 95
10. The Man of Taste . . . 105
11. Burlington Gate as it appeared prior to 1868 . . . 109
12. Don Quixote, No. 1.—The Innkeeper . . . 115
13. Don Quixote, No. 2.—The Funeral of Chrysostom . . . 117
14. Don Quixote, No. 3.—The Innkeeper’s Wife and Daughter . . . 119
15. Don Quixote, No. 4.—Don Quixote seizes the Barber’s Basin
. . . 120
16. Don Quixote, No. 5.—Don Quixote releases the Galley Slaves
. . . 122
17. Don Quixote, No. 6.—The First Interview . . . 123
18. Don Quixote, No. 7.—The Curate and the Barber . . . 125
19. Danaë in the Brazen Chamber . . . 143
20. Suppressed Illustration from _The Vicar of Wakefield_ . . . 172
21. Het beest van Babel, etc. (_The plate in its first state_)
. . . 218
22. Het beest van Babel, etc. (_The plate in its second state_)
. . . 219
23. Aan der Meester Tonge-Slyper. (_The plate in its first state_)
. . . 229
Aan der Meester Tonge-Slyper. (_As adapted by the Anti-Jesuits_)
. . . 229
24. The Stature of a Great Man, or the English Colossus . . . 234
25. The Stature of a Great Man, or the Scotch Colossus . . . 235
26. Aan den Experten Hollandschen Hoofd-Smith. (_The plate in its
first state_) . . . 245
27. Aan den Experten Hollandschen Hoofd-Smith. (_As adapted by the
Anti-Jesuits_) . . . 245
28. An adapted Copperplate. (_First state_) . . . 247
29. An adapted Copperplate. (_Second state_) . . . 247
30. A History of the New Plot. (_First state_) . . . 249
31. A History of the New Plot. (_Second state_) . . . 249
SUPPRESSED PLATES, ETC.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
No one who has the itch for book-collecting will deny that suppressed
book illustrations are, what the forbidden fruit was to our mother Eve,
irresistible. Whether such appetite represents the very proper ambition
to have at his elbow the earliest states of beautiful or interesting
books, of which the subsequently suppressed plate or wood engraving
is in general a sort of guarantee, or the less defensible desire to
possess what our neighbour does not, must be settled by the conscience
of each. The fact remains that such rarities are peculiarly alluring to
those whom Wotton calls “the lickerish chapmen of all such ware.” {2}
There are, of course, ridiculous[1] people who value such books as
the first issue of the first edition of Dickens’s _American Notes_
just because there is a mistake in the pagination; or a first edition
of Disraeli’s _Lothair_ because the prototype of “Monsignor Catesby”
is divulged by misprinting the name “Capel”; or _Poems_ by Robert
Burns, first Edinburgh Edition, because in the list of subscribers
“The Duke of Roxborough” appears as “The Duke of Boxborough”; or
Barker’s “Breeches” Bible of 1594, because on the title-page of the New
Testament the figures are transposed to 1495; or the first edition in
French of Washington Irving’s _Sketch Book_, because the translator,
maltreating the author’s name, has declared the book to be “traduit de
l’Anglais de M. Irwin Washington,” and in the dedication has labelled
Sir Walter Scott, _Barronnet_; or indeed a book of my own, in which I
described as “since dead” a gifted and genial gentleman who I am glad
to think still gives the lie to my inexcusable carelessness. {3}
[1] I am quite aware that “ridiculous” is a dangerous stone to throw,
when one lives in a glass house oneself.
But it is not _because_ of such errors that a true book-lover desires
to own _editiones principes_ of famous works. That ambition is
legitimate enough, but its legitimate reason is otherwhere to seek.
In the case of such a book as Rogers’s _Italy_, with the Turner
engravings, the matter is very different. Here the fact that the plates
on pp. 88 and 91 are transposed is a guarantee that the impressions of
the extraordinarily delicate engravings are of the utmost brilliancy,
for the error was discovered before many impressions had been taken.
The same applies, though in lesser degree, to such a book as Mr. Austin
Dobson’s _Ballad of Beau Brocade_, illustrated by Mr. Hugh Thomson, in
the earliest edition of which certain of the illustrations are also
misplaced.[2] There is reason in wishing to possess these. See what
Ruskin himself has said of the omission of the two engravings which
had appeared in the first edition of _The Two Paths_. He writes in the
preface to the 1878 reissue: {4}
[2] Compare also the early issues of the first edition of Ainsworth’s
_Tower of London_, in which the plates at pp. 28 and 45 vary from those
in the later issues.
“I own to a very enjoyable pride in making the first editions of my
books valuable to their possessors, who found out, before other people,
that these writings and drawings were good for something . . . and the
two lovely engravings by Messrs. Cuff and Armytage will, I hope, render
the old volume more or less classical among collectors.” From this we
gather that “the Professor” was of the right kidney.
It is hardly necessary to say that it is not my intention to make
this book a devil’s directory to illustrations which have been
suppressed because of indecency, and are referred to in the catalogues
of second-hand booksellers, whose cupidity is stronger than their
self-respect, as “facetiæ” or “very curious.” Indeed, this book
would itself in that case also very properly be put on the index
expurgatorius of every decent person. My purpose is to gather together,
correct and amplify the floating details concerning a legitimate class
of rarities, and to put the collector on his guard, where necessary,
against imposition.
By its very nature this treatise cannot be complete, but I have
included most of the {5} examples of any importance which, during many
years of bibliomania, have come under my observation. To these I have
added certain re-engraved or palimpsest plates, which are germane to
the subject.
As to these last I find amongst my papers a curious note from the
pen of R. H. Cromek, the engraver, who flourished at the end of the
eighteenth century.
“One of these vendors,” he writes (publishers of Family Bibles),
“lately called to consult me professionally about an engraving he
brought with him. It represented Mons. Buffon seated, contemplating
various groups of animals surrounding him. He merely wished, he said,
to be informed whether, by engaging my services to unclothe the
naturalist, and giving him a rather more resolute look, _the plate
could not, at a trifling expense, be made to do duty for ‘Daniel in the
lions’ den’_”!
That would be a palimpsest well worth possessing, if ever it were
carried into effect. It would be as fascinating an object of
contemplation as the Stothard designs for _Clarissa Harlowe_, {6}
which the same authority informs us were later used to illustrate the
Scriptures! But the history of the _cliché_, pure and simple, has yet
to be written. Our concern is with higher game than that.
{7}