3-052-315 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The First to Come, drawn by F. Barnard, 1872. 'Of course, it is Mr. Thomas Tipper who makes this early appearance on the festive scene. The good young man left his father's counting-house an hour sooner than usual, that he might devote full two hours...to the consummation of a precise and elegant toilette...He is now in a fit condition for the society of those angelic creatures, Adeline Maud, Victoria, and Selina, whose tender esteem and flattering approval he desires above all earthly fortune and success. For them he has practised the bewildering tactics of the mazy quadrille, the rotatory movements of the waltz and polka...For them he has studied the Manual of Etiquette, which informed him that he ought not to...interrupt a person speaking, or to talk much of himself. For them he has committed to memory...some likely topics of light conversation; the plots of two or three recent novels, the criticisms of theatrical entertainments and picture exhibitions, the daily statistics of the weather...He has even read a deal of poetry...and he is ready to swear that he dotes upon music; but he would say anything to win the favour of Adeline Maud. His attire is faultless, and that big flower in his buttonhole is the special token of a refined mind'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.