Dickens, Charles
A Christmas Carol
£4,284
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 28 September 2022 from 10:00 BST
Description
In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, 1843. 8vo, original reddish-brown cloth, half-title, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, 4 wood-engraved illustrations in text, all edges gilt, binding faded and marked, spine rolled, and with loss to head and foot, rear joint partly split, tips bumped and worn, free endpapers and advertisement leaf (M4) excised, inner hinges cracked (webbing visible) finger-soiling, several leaves dog-eared, contemporary ownership inscription to front pastedown, pencil markings to half-title, one plate ('Scrooge's third visitor') loose [Smith II 4]
Footnote
Note:
First edition (text uncorrected), first issue with 'Stave I' as the chapter heading on p. [1] (reading 'Stave One' in later copies), second state with the title-page in red and blue and dated 1843, and green endpapers; in Todd's first-issue binding (front cover with 'closest interval between blind-stamping left margin and left extremity of gilt wreath: 14-15 mm'), in which numerous states of text and endpapers are encountered. In this copy the full stop after 'gloom' at page 21, line 22 is faint, which according to Smith is characteristic of the second edition, but otherwise all textual points agree with those listed for the first edition.
All proceeds from the sale of this lot are to be donated to Oxfam GB.