DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870). Autograph letter signed (‘Charles Dickens’) to Dr [John] Elliotson, Devonshire Terrace, [London], 10 June 1848.

1½ pages, 179 x 113mm, bifolium. Provenance: Christie’s New York, 15 December 2005, lot 421.

Dickens laments the death of the ‘Brave Courier’, immortalised in Pictures from Italy (1846). ‘I am deeply sorry to receive the intelligence you send me of the Brave Courier, who is one of the gentlest and most genial natures in the world. These fadings away are dreadful things, and so are all the pains and penalties of our mortal state. But I am sure if any man have reason to find comfort in them, you have, who can administer so much, and always with such kindness and consideration. I thank you from my heart…’

In the 1846 travelogue Pictures from Italy, Dickens recounts the events of an extended trip through France and Italy in 1844, during which the family relied upon a guide named Louis Roche, a native of Avignon whom Dickens referred to as the ‘brave courier’. Dickens described the effusive reaction of the landlord to Roche when the family’s coach stopped at a hotel for the night: he ‘can hardly wait for his coming down from the box, but embraces his very legs and boot-heels as he descends. 'My Courier! My brave Courier! My friend! My brother!' The landlady loves him, the femme de chambre blesses him, the garcon worships him. The Courier asks if his letter has been received? It has, it has. Are the rooms prepared? They are, they are. The best rooms for my noble Courier. The rooms of state for my gallant Courier; the whole house is at the service of my best of friends!’. The pioneering physician John Elliotson (1791-1868) was both close friend and medical advisor to Dickens; he also introduced the younger man to mesmerism, which would become a shared passion.

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Please note that this letter is dated 10 June 1848, not 12 June as previously stated in the catalogue note.