George Cruikshank, illustrator and caricaturist : presentation signature, dated 20 December 1844.

Large, bold full signature in ink of British illustrator George Cruikshank, on paper sheet (80 x 180 mm) laid down on a section cut from a mid-nineteenth century album page; dated in Cruikshank’s own hand ‘Dec. 20th 1844′; a very well preserved example of Cruikshank’s flamboyant signature.

George Cruikshank (1792-1878) achieved notoriety in his lifetime for his lampoons of political and royal figures. His career as a book illustrator began in the 1820s, and he went on to prove the illustrations for a number of Charles Dickens’ early works. He also became embroiled in a controversy over his claims that Dickens stole many of his ideas for the plot of Oliver Twist.