Characters from Charles Dickens: Mr Stiggins by Kyd – 1903

I'm back from my summer vacation in England and Wales and as on previous trips back to the UK I've returned home with my suitcase full of postcards having spent many happy hours perusing flea markets! I'll be sharing some of my finds here on the blog, of course, and today's postcard is one I was particularly thrilled to come across – an artist signed postcard featuring one of Kyd's Characters from Charles Dickens.

Some months ago I wrote a post about The Dickens House Museum and one of Britain's most famous postcard publishers Raphael Tuck & Sons who published many, many sets of Dickens-themed cards over their long publishing life. This undivided back postcard, printed using the chromolithographic method, is from a much earlier series by Tuck featuring watercolors of beloved characters from Dickens, such as this one of Mr. Stiggins, who appeared in The Pickwick Papers. The red-nosed Reverend Mr. Stiggins, is the hypocritical and drunken parson who meets his downfall in Chapter 52.

“Kyd” was the pseudonym of English illustrator Joseph Clayton Clarke (1856-1937), who after only a single day's employment for Punch magazine became a freelance artist specialising in Dickens for most of his career. His illustrations from Dickens were also published by Raphael Tuck in book form – this particular image appears to have first been published in 1889 in The Characters of Charles Dickens: Portrayed in a Series of Original Water Colour Sketches by “Kyd”, a collection of lithographs after original water colors by the artist.

The reverse of the postcard is proudly emblazoned with the Royal Warrant whilst a very early version of their palette and easel insignia is visible, albeit rather faintly, on the front left hand edge of the card. The inscription reads:

Raphael Tuck & Sons' “Dickens” Postcard Series 541 II.
Designed in England Chromographed in Bavaria

The postmark is a little blurred, but looks very much like 1903 or possibly 1908 – given that Great Britain was the first to adopt the "divided back" postcard in 1902, this makes the earlier date more likely.

Happy Postcard Friendship Friday!

Find more vintage postcards over at Beth's postcard blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy and join other collectors on Postcard Friendship Friday.