“Lord Keep My Memory Green”: Charles Dickens and his Ball Family Super Fans

Fig. 1: A Christmas Carol designed and printed for Ball Brothers Company, 1925. Minnetrista Heritage Collection

This time of year, enjoying the beloved holiday story A Christmas Carol is a tradition for many families, these days usually as theater performances or films broadcast on television. Avid book collectors, George and Frances Ball and their daughter Elisabeth adored this story and others written by Charles Dickens (1812-1870). They owned several copies of his greatest works and in 1925 even had a special edition of A Christmas Carol designed and printed as gifts for Ball Company employees. You might call these bibliophiles Dickens “super fans,” such admirers of the author that they even occasionally sought out Dickens “merch,” memorabilia originally owned by the author himself.

A beautifully engraved silver traveling flask in the Minnetrista Heritage Collection is one such special item. A receipt from a London-based rare bookseller shows that George Ball purchased this “Dickens (Charles) silver flask” from a London Sotheby’s & Co. sale in 1929. Ball was a careful collector, his correspondence with book dealers showing he was always eager to know the histories of the items he was thinking of purchasing. Now, over ninety years after this artifact came to Muncie, new research has uncovered the full story of this small but powerful memento.

Fig. 2: Silver traveling flask and cup owned by Charles Dickens, dated 1868. Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 96.42.514.

Fig. 3: George Ball’s receipt for the Dickens flask, purchased April 1929. Minnetrista Heritage Collection.  

Fig. 4: Detail of Dickens flask engraving, Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 96.42.514.

The engraving on the body of this flask reveals its unique identity, almost like a fingerprint. It reads: “To Charles Dickens, Feb(ruary) 7th, 1868, from Franklin Philp, Washington, U.S.A.” Tracing these details and connecting the dots they provide reveals a sweet story of fame, friendship, and Dickens’ final tour of America before his death in 1870, a tale that any Dickens admirer would have appreciated.

In February 1868, Dickens was three months into his third speaking tour of America. He sold out theaters and concert halls, his appearances making national news in each new city he visited. That month, he traveled south to Washington D.C. to perform for four days, from February 4-7. During his readings at D.C.’s grand Carroll Hall, Dickens performed selections from several of his most beloved works, including The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, and of course, A Christmas Carol.

Fig. 5: The Boston Daily Evening Transcript published news of Dickens’ arrival in Washington on February 3, 1868.

Among the people who greeted Dickens in the nation’s capital was a fellow Englishman and local bookseller, Franklin Philp (1826-1887). Born in Cornwall, Philp crossed the Atlantic in 1853 and quickly setup his own “bookseller and stationer” business in Washington. According to newspaper advertisements, a decade later “Philp & Solomon’s” was the primary seller of tickets for Dickens’ D.C. readings. And while it perhaps is not surprising that a prominent bookseller and a famous author might cross paths, Philp and Dickens in fact were more than just business associates. Dickens himself tells us that the two were good friends.

Fig. 6: Photograph of Charles Dickens in 1867, taken during his final tour of America. Library of Congress.

Fig. 7: Portrait of Franklin Philp taken about 1865. National Portrait Gallery.

Among Dickens’ personal letters, one survives written to Franklin Philp and dated February 7, 1868 (Dickens’ birthday and the same date engraved on the flask). The author wrote:

“My Dear Mr. Philp

I owe you a thousand thanks – and I pay them in the readiest money – for your sympathetic remembrance of my birthday, and for the elegant token of your remembrance received this morning. Believe me, I shall always esteem in highly…When you next come over to England, I hope you will come to Gad’s Hill to see how the pretty bottle wears, and to note whether it is kept bright or not. Whensoever you come, you will find that I have not forgotten so much as one of the many spontaneous acts of goodwill and good help for which I stand indebted to you and your partner, and for which I heartily thank you both.”

This small silver flask was a birthday gift exchanged between friends, a symbol of affection given during a whirlwind business trip that for Dickens continued on for many months. Gad’s Hill Place, mentioned in the letter, was Dickens’ country home in England and Philp did in fact go visit, in the summer of 1869 (the details of that happy trip are documented by one of Dickens’ early biographers).

Back across the Atlantic, from one country home to another, this object created a direct link between the Ball family at Oakhurst and one of their favorite authors. Family records from the early 1980s show that this item was then displayed in the dining room. Make sure to visit The Oakhurst Experience in early 2022. This object will be returning to the house, displayed in the very library where Dickens “super fans” George, Frances, and Elisabeth followed the great author’s plea to “Lord Keep My Memory Green!”  And indeed, his legacy will live on at Minnetrista Boulevard!