Self-Caricature

This self-caricature, engraved on a copperplate, is signed Done by / Truly Yours / Mark Twain. It was one of the souvenirs presented to each of the guests at the dinner honoring Twain on his sixty-seventh birthday, November 28, 1902, at the Metropolitan Club, New York. The engraved note reads: "N.B. I cannot make a good / mouth, therefore I leave it out. / There is enough without it anyway. / Done with the best ink. M.T." It is housed in a brown leather case and lettered Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan in gilt. To further personalize these facsimile engravings, a slip of paper was inset below the image, with a characteristically ironic handwritten note to the recipient from Twain: J. Pierpont Morgan. For financial advice apply without diffidence to Mark Twain.