"Death in one of the suddenest and startling forms has just taken from us one of the greatest minds of this or any age."
When Charles Dickens died on 9 June 1870, aged just 58 years old, it was a shock to the entire world. The author had suffered a stroke the previous day — while having dinner at home at Gad's Hill Place (though there are suggestions he may have actually been at his lover, Ellen Ternan's house in Peckham).
The detachable linen shirt collar Dickens was wearing during the time of that fatal stroke has now been acquired by London's Charles Dickens Museum, and will go on permanent display as of Wednesday 11 March. Deeply yellowed, and now framed alongside an image of Dickens, the collar was first purchased by actor and music hall performer Bransby Williams, famed for his portrayals of characters from Dickens' novels, later passing into a private collection.
The collar is joined at the house museum on Doughty Street by a collection of other personal items, in a permanent display in Dickens' former dressing room. Among these is a pair of black silk stockings that form part of Dickens' only surviving suit, and which the writer wore along with a dark jacket, trousers and white waistcoat — as well as a sword — to a formal reception at St James’s Palace, earlier on in the year of his death. Dickens wryly described this getup as 'fancy dress'.
Other pieces include grooming items: six silver razors (despite his famous beard, Dickens shaved daily), a perfume bottle, silver candle snuffers and a gold locket containing photos and locks of hair from Dickens and his son, Henry.
But surely it's Dickens final collar, which — along with Nelson's blood-stained undress coat on display at the National Maritime Museum — will become one of London's most morbidly curious museum items.
All images: Charles Dickens Museum
