Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Autograph letter signed ('Charles Dickens') to Clarkson Stanfield ('My dear Stanny'), Tavistock House, 20 May 1857
Two pages, 180 x 115mm, small pencil drawing of a ship on blank f2v. Provenance: Comte Alain de Suzannet – Comtesse de Suzannet – her sale, Sotheby's, 22 & 23 November 1971, lot 282 – bought by Captain Tait; Sotheby's, 25 March 1974, lot 195; Sotheby's, 23 July 1987, lot 59.

'A little record importing that we loved one another': a touching letter to the dedicatee of Little Dorrit. Dickens alerts Stanfield that his copy of Little Dorrit is with the binders, but sends him the proofs, so that he can read the close of the book before the conclusion of its periodical publication, and ends with a warm expression of the pleasure of having dedicated it him.

Binders of books are rather slow. I know that some weeks may elapse before the copy of Little Dorrit that I have asked my binder to put into a cheerful dress for you, will be ready. And as I hope you may like to know it is coming, and also to know the end of the book before the rest of its readers can, I send you the Proof Sheets of the closing N^os: of course I don't want them back.

I say nothing of the pleasure it has been to me to put your name on the opening page, or to leave behind us both (as I hope its being there, may), a little record importing that we loved one another.

Clarkson Stanfield (1793-1867) was a painter best know for large-scale marine subjects and for pioneering the 'moving diorama' with David Roberts. Dickens was a lifelong friend, and was one of his last visitors on the day he died, describing him later as 'the soul of frankness, generosity and simplicity. The most genial, the most affectionate, the most loving and the most lovable of men'.