DICKENS (CHARLES, 1812-1870, novelist) WATER-COLOUR DRAWING OF DICKENS'S COFFIN, by Byng Giraud, architect, 'from a sketch taken in the Abbey after the family had left on the morning of his burial...from the triforium, looking down into the Grave', with a quotation from A Tale of Two Cities: 'I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence', showing the plain coffin, plainly lettered with his name and dates of birth and death, adorned with a wreath of white roses, single red and white roses down each side, and ferns with roses at the head; within a black border, size of aperture c. 18 x 11 inches, framed and glazed, overall size c. 21 x 14 inches [c.14 June 1870]

This water-colour drawing is probably the only pictorial representation of Dickens's coffin.

Dickens died at Gad's Hill Place, four months and two days after his 58th birthday, just before 6.00 p.m. on 9 June 1870: 'His eyes were closed, but a tear welled from under his right eye and trickled down his cheek. Then he was gone'.

'Dickens was so full of life that it did not seem possible he could die', Longfellow wrote to Forster. 'I never knew an author's death to cause such general mourning. It is no exaggeration to say that this whole country is stricken with grief.' Mary Cowden Clarke read the telegraphed four words in an Italian newspaper '"Carlo Dickens e morto" and the 'sun seemed suddenly blotted out.' 'It is an event world-wide', Carlyle wrote to Forster, 'a unique of Talents suddenly extinct; and has "eclipsed"...the harmless gaiety of Nations.'

The Times took the lead in demanding that he be buried in Westminster Abbey rather than Rochester Cathedral where a grave had been prepared. After Dean Stanley accepted the terms of Dickens's will for an absolutely private and unannounced funeral the family yielded. The funeral took place on the morning of 14 June; only twelve of his family and closest friends attended, including Wilkie and Charles Collins, Frank Beard, John Forster and Dickens's solicitor, Frederic Ouvry.

In his will Dickens had directed 'that my name be inscribed in plain English letters on my tomb. I rest my claims to the remembrance of my country upon my published works and to the remembrance of my friends upon their experience of me.' Towards evening, Percy Fitzgerald joined the growing throng and recorded 'There was a wreath of white roses lying on the flags at his feet, a great bank of ferns at his head, rows of white and red roses down the sides.' With Forster's permission, Dean Stanley allowed the grave to remain open for two more days. At dusk on 16 June, after the Abbey closed to the public, Lord Houghton heard that the grave would not be closed until midnight. He was the last to look on the coffin. (Edgar Johnson, Charles Dickens, His Tragedy and Triumph, 1952, ii. pp. 1154-1157; N. and J. MacKenzie, Dickens, A Life, 1979, pp. 390-391; Fred Kaplan, Dickens, A Biography, 1988, p. 556).

£1,500