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Dickensian Pawnbroker

Introduction
Many of Dickens’ novels refer to pawnbrokers and his Sketches of London No 35 is a full article. The Circumlocution Office comes from Little Dorrit, set in 1820s London. The famous quote on Annual Income from Mr Micawber is reversed here to create some Christmas happiness, not misery! This debtor from David Copperfield was based on Dickens’ own father.

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Hazle Ceramics
The Pawnbroker &
Circumlocution Office
Limited Painting of 50
on Bury St Edmunds Inn
once a Pawnbroker in real life!

 The pawnbroker values a widow’s jewels. Children wait with items, perhaps from alcoholic parents. On the ceramic a lady weeps while handing her child a handkerchief.

Dickens Xmas 2011 3/3
Windows by Christine McAllister

 The ceramic depicts Lombard, Italian bankers who brought loans secured on pawned goods to London. The Sign of Three Balls (once gold coins)shows a 2:1 chance of redemption. Today 80% of items are reclaimed - at 7-8% interest a month.

Little Dorrit
Much is set in the Marshalsea, a London debtors’ prison where Dickens’ father John was held. The ceramic has a sign to it. William Dorrit’s children grew up there before he was freed. Riches gained and lost include a Ponzi-type bank scam. Dickens’ biting satire on Government, The Circumlocution Office is a place of eternal chaos that obstructs progress with answers having to be found elsewhere. The love and devotion of Amy or Little Dorrit and other virtuous souls shines through and reaps its reward.

UK/Europe £84.50
Rest of World £73.48

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 Little Dorrit played by Claire Foy in the BBC TV series, 2008.

 Robert Hardy as Tite Barnacle for BBC TV
on document-strewn stairs in the Circumlocution Office. Forms are needed to fill in more forms!