Cordery, Corn Cutter and Nail Operator, 13 Chalton Street, Sommers Town. Ladies & gentlemen attended in town & country.

TRADE CARD. CORDERY, Mr.

Published by Kerby, Stafford St. [c.1780], 1780

About this Item

Illus. trade card, 63 x 92mm, printed on recto only on stiff card; a little browned. Housed in 19thC wooden frame, glazed. Unrecorded in ESTC. Two examples are recorded in the British Museum prints and drawings department, one in the Banks Collection (bequeathed in 1818), the other in the Heal Collection. The Heal example is mounted, and has the following annotation: 'No trace of Cordery. in London Directories 1770-1838. . There practised in London, early in the 19th century, a celebrated corncutter named Miss Cordery who was a dwarf & a notable character. By 1838 she had become 'Mrs. Seymour Hill, corn operator, 6, York Gate, Regents Park. She had a brother - also a dwarf. .' The card here is obviously of a much earlier date than 1838, more probably c.1780 & will therefore be that of Miss Cordery's father who was also a dwarf according to 'Chiropody Jottings' by E.G.V. Runting. Cordery practised as a corn cutter also.' The upper portion of the card is illustrated within a double-ruled printed box; depicted is a frock-coated seated man, one of his bare feet resting on a footstool, being attended by a smartly-dressed man of diminutive stature. No further details are given for Mr Cordery, and we have unfortunately not been able to obtain a copy of Chiropody Jottings which may shed some light on his life and business operations, but we can deduce from this wonderfully evocative trade card that he was operating out of rooms in Chalton Street in the late 18th century. Kerby, the printer, can be placed at the Stafford Street address in the 1780s and 90s. His daughter, Miss Cordery, later Mrs Seymour Hill, was herself an interesting character. She was acquainted with Charles Dickens and his wife, and was most put out when she perceived herself in Dickens's far from flattering portrayal of Mrs Mowcher, the dwarf chiropodist in David Copperfield. She wrote to Dickens in 1849, asking that he modify his depiction of Mrs Mowcher as the novel progressed, while in response he assured her that his inspiration for the character was a 'very different person'. (See Pilgrim Letters, vol. V, p.674.) PLEASE NOTE: For customers within the UK this item is subject to VAT.

Seller Inventory # 92908

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Cordery, Corn Cutter and Nail Operator, 13 Chalton Street, Sommers Town. Ladies & gentlemen attended in town & country.
• Publisher: Kerby, Stafford St. [c.1780]
• Publication Date: 1780