DICKENS (CATHERINE) MAYALL (JOHN JABEZ EDWIN)

Profile portrait of Catherine Dickens, July 1852-June 1855

Footnotes

THE ONLY KNOWN DAGUERREOTYPE OF CATHERINE DICKENS.

The portrait can be dated between 1852 and 1855: a patent date "Reg. July 20 1852" is visible on the catch of the case - the same year that Mayall opened his 224 Regent Street premises. At the latest, the sitting could have taken place in the first half of 1855, as in June of that year Mayall sold his 433 West Strand studio to his assistant Jabez Hughes. Charles Dickens first sat for the photographer in 1852, but seems to have made several subsequent sittings until 1856 (see previous lot). With similar mountings and styles, and with their faces shown in opposing profiles, it is conceivable that this and the previous lot were intended as a pair and that the couple visited Mayall's studio together during this period.

Catherine is shown approaching her fortieth year and at a time when her life with Charles Dickens was unravelling. Exhausted by many years of childbearing, by the death of her 8-month-old daughter Dora in 1851, and by marriage to an increasingly restless husband who had begun to look elsewhere for female company, she appears a sadder figure than the images we have of her earlier in life. She nonetheless retains a token of her youth in the ringletted hair just visible beneath her bonnet.

When this daguerreotype came to light in 1996, the case held two ivory passes for the 1870 Italian Opera. One was inscribed 'Miss Dickens', suggesting that the daguerreotype might once have belonged to the couple's eldest daughter Mary, known as Mamie.

Literature:
Axon, C., 'The Daguerreotype of Catherine Dickens', in The Dickensian, Summer 1997, no. 442, vol. 93, part 2, pp.89-93.
Slater, M., 'Catherine Dickens in the Early 1850s: A Newly-discovered image', ibid., pp.85-88.

Provenance: Possibly owned by Mary "Mamie" Dickens (1838-1896); Stuart Heggie Vintage Cameras, Canterbury, purchased from a customer in 1996; Colin Axon, purchased from the former; Bonhams, 17 May 2012, lot 1, consigned by the former; UK private collector, purchased at the sale; bequeathed to present owner.