Illustrations by Chris Hammond for Sense and Sensibility

Object name: Original illustrations by Chris Hammond for Sense and Sensibility (1899)

Object number: CHWJA:JAH423.1 – 12

Category: Objects

Description: A collection of twelve original pen and ink drawings, illustrating scenes in Sense and Sensibility.

Made: 1899

Context: Chris (Christiana) Hammond (1860-1900) is best known for her work illustrating classic works of fiction.

This set of drawings was prepared for a lavishly illustrated edition of Sense and Sensibility published by George Allen & Co in 1899. Hammond also illustrated an edition of Emma, and Pride and Prejudice before her early death. She hand-drew the title page in the style of Hugh Thomson’s Peacock edition, but much of her vision was refreshing and new.

Like Jane Austen, Chris Hammond never married and lived with her sister, also an artist. As a woman working in a predominantly male industry, she abbreviated her name to help her to secure work – a successful ploy, as she went on to become one of the most productive illustrators of the 1890s.

These illustrations have a surprising history. They are part of a set of 12 pen and ink drawings for Sense and Sensibility that were discovered in an attic in New Zealand in 2017, having lain there undisturbed for some 50 years. They came to light in a family archive belonging to the late Revd Arthur Stanley Moffatt.

Credit: Acquired in 2018 with the generous assistance of the Jane Austen Society Jane Austen 250 Fund; formerly the property of the late Revd Arthur Stanley Moffatt.

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