Waiting room at the Admiralty (*no Misnomer); From, The Progress of a Midshipman, Exemplified in the Career of Master Blockhead 1860 (plate 6)
London: Thomas McLean, 1820. Second Edition. Etching with handcoloring in watercolor on cream wove paper (published 1835), 8 3/8 x 11 1/2 inches (210 x 29 0mm), full margins. Second and final edition, printed by Thomas McLean. Signed in the plate by Cruikshank, and bearing Frederick Marryat's anchor moniker. Two large bows of light-colored dampstain, extending approximately 1/4 inch into the image area at the left plate mark (unobtrusive). Minor bow of light-colored dampstaining at the center sheet edge, does not enter plate mark. Two spots of light grayish discoloration at the center-lower plate mark. Small "nic" of paper loss at top-right extreme sheet corner (well outside of plate mark). Light handling creases and surface soil. All condition issues are consistent with age.
Perhaps introduced to each other by their mutual friend, Charles Dickens, George Cruickshank and Captain Frederick Marryat became fast friends, political confidants, and artistic collaborators, working together many times over the course of their late careers. Marryat, a novelist, caricaturist and captain in the Royal Navy, first went to sea in 1806, and served throughout the Napoleonic Wars. After Napoleon’s defeat, having had a brilliant career at sea, Marryat found his Naval exercises uninspiring, and decided to resign his commission. In November 1830 he left the Royal Navy and took up writing full time. Some of Marryat’s most well loved novels include "Frank Mildmay" (1829), "Peter Simple" (1834), "Mr. Midshipman Easy" (1836), and "Japhet in Search of a Father" (1836). Marryat was also a well known author of children’s books, having penned "The Pacha of many Tales" (1836), "The Phantom Ship" (1839), "Poor Jack" (1840), "Masterman Ready" (1841), and "The Settlers in Canada" (1844). He is also known for some unrelated remarkable achievements, including having developed the first general system of flag signaling for merchant vessels (Marryat’s Code of Signals), as well as being credited with describing a previously unrecorded gastropod genus Cyclostrema with the type species Cyclostrema cancellatum, and having drawn Napoleon’s deathbed portrait.
Originally issued in an oblong folio with 8 hand-colored lithographed plates by Cruikshank after Marryat, this image is signed in the plate, and dated June 1820.
Item number: 113
Price: $175.00
Share: