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Sketches of Mr. Mathews's Celebrated Trip To Paris,
London: Printed by and For J. Limbird, [1825]. Item #02756
With Hand-Colored Folding Frontispiece
By Robert Cruikshank
[CRUIKSHANK, Robert, illustrator]. MATHEWS, Charles. Sketches of Mr. Mathews's Celebrated Trip To Paris. Comprising a Full Account of His Admirable Lecture on Peculiarities, Characters and Manners, With the Most Laughable of the Stories and Adventures, and Seven Original Comic Songs, on the Subjects of Do As Other Folks Do. Paris Is The Only Place. Delights of the Packet. Lumps and Bumps. Day At Meurice's. Heads For A Quarto. And Now Farewell To Paris Revels. And an Analysis of the Laughable Monopolylogue, La Diligence. Embellished with an Elegant Engraving by Cruikshank. London: Printed by and For J. Limbird, n.d. [1825].
Third edition (first published in 1819), scarce in all editions. Twelvemo (6 7/8 x 3 3/4 inches; 174 x 93 mm). 24 pp. With a folding hand-coloured etched frontispiece, titled “Mr. Mathews, as Miss Evelina Evergreen”.
Bound by Zaehnsdorf in later full crimson calf with double fillets, gilt decoration at spine head and tail, and long green morocco title label as compartment. Gilt dentelles. Top edge gilt. Gilt-rolled board edges. A fine copy.
A lively printed record of one of the most celebrated comic performances of the Regency stage. Charles Mathews’s Trip to Paris was a tour-de-force of rapid impersonation, dialect, and physical transformation, distilled here into lecture, anecdote, song, and monologue for a reading public eager to relive the theatrical sensation. The folding frontispiece by Robert Cruikshank - showing Mathews in female guise as “Miss Evelina Evergreen” - captures the actor’s virtuoso talent for disguise and caricature, and stands as a highlight of early nineteenth-century theatrical illustration.
Originally issued in ephemeral pamphlet form and heavily handled, copies are seldom found in such attractive condition, and the survival of the hand-colored folding plate adds materially to the book’s appeal. Handsomely bound by Zaehnsdorf, this example bridges Regency popular theater, caricature, and book-collecting taste, making it a particularly desirable copy of a scarce theatrical souvenir.
"By 1814 Mathews [1803-1878] was an extremely successful comic actor [and playwright]. After early engagements at York, Dublin and elsewhere, he had secured employment in the London theatres, where he had been performing for over a decade. Although he very much wanted to be acclaimed in the great comic roles, he was most successful in volatile, bustling roles specially written for him by the farceurs of the day and usually entailing a rapid succession of impersonations and costume changes. One of Mathews' special skills was an ability to so transform himself physically, facially and vocally that he was often completely unrecognisable" (Davis, Representing the Comic Actor at Work. Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, Winter 2004, Vol. 31, No. 2).
Price: $850.00