British artist (1838–1914) best known for his lively illustrations for the works of Dickens, Thackeray, and others. Excellent collection containing two original pencil sketches and an ANS. First pencil sketch depicts two scenes from Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, on a 6 x 4.25 sheet of brown tissue paper, signed along the lower edge, “F. W. Pailthorpe, Great Expectations,” and affixed to an 8.5 x 5.5 off-white sheet. A page of notes in an unknown hand explains that the first image illustrates the quote, ‘Then, he took up the candle, and shading it with his murderous hand so as to throw its light on me, stood before me, looking at one and enjoying the sight’; the second depicts Pip’s arrest for debt, sitting up in his bed to find two men looking at him. A second pencil sketch on a 5.5 x 9 off-white sheet, signed below the image, “F. W. Pailthorpe,” and labeled in his hand, “The Taking of Morris Bolter,” illustrates the captain of police in Oliver Twist being dumped into an empty water barrel head-first. Also included is a brief ANS on a 5.5 x 3.25 off-white postcard, in full: “I shall be delighted to meet Ms. Laureal Junior on Friday evening. Yours ever, F. W. P.,” dated below in an unknown hand “June 11, 09.” Reverse bears address in Pailthorpe’s hand. Collection is in overall fine condition, with a corner crease and light soiling to ANS, a small pinhole to upper edge of first sketch, and some light foxing and soiling to second sketch, with minor creasing along edges. Accompanied by a small print of one of his works. RR Auction COA.
