History of England . Two subsequent studies written long after Collis’s time, Johannsen’s Phiz Illustrations from the Novels of Charles Dickens , and Kremers’s A Comparative Bibliography of the Sheets and Publishers’ Cloth Cases of the Demy Octavo Works of Charles Dickens , both revoked the status of many “early issue points”. In this set, parts 9 onwards are largely of the earliest issue of text, plates, and wrappers, with some absent advertisements as usual; the earlier parts, far harder to acquire in the earliest issues, are secondary issues, but still generally early. The wrappers are all dated 1836 except for part 18, which is dated 1837. Dickens and the publisher’s addresses are present as called for in parts 10, 15, 17, 18, and 19/20, and absent in parts 2 and 3 as usual. All plates are without captions, added for the issue in book form, but sometimes – undesirably – later supplied by collectors to the parts. 20 numbers in 19 monthly parts, as issued. Original light blue wrappers printed in black. Each part in a brown paper sleeve with notes by the collector Collis (see note), also with various inserted notes on the set by the same, and a typed letter signed, 15 December 1935, from the bibliographer Thomas Hatton. Additional sleeves of further plates and letterpress for part 1 and 2, letterpress only for part 3 and 6, and additional advertisement for part 10, also included, alongside an empty sleeve for part 5. All housed in custom green cloth solander box, spine lettered in gilt (a little rubbed). Etched vignette title page, frontispiece, and 41 plates by Robert Seymour, Robert W. Buss, and H. K. Browne. Washed, and spines and extremities expertly repaired, by Morrell c .1935 (Collis’s note of such inserted in part V). A few parts with wrappers a little soiled and contents toned, the remainder generally very clean and fresh; overall a very good set. ¶ Eckel, pp. 17–59; Prime Pickwicks in Parts , 1928; Hatton & Cleaver, pp. 1–88; Miller & Strange, Centenary Bibliography of the Pickwick Papers . Albert Johannsen , Phiz Illustrations from the Novels of Charles Dickens , 1956, pp. 1–75; Lars Kremers, A Comparative Bibliography of the Sheets and Publishers’ Cloth Cases of the Demy Octavo Works of Charles Dickens , unpublished thesis (accessible online), 2013, pp. 54–69. £10,000 [154475] 44 DICKENS, Charles. Dombey and Son. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1848 IN THE PRIMARY CLOTH First edition, bound from the original parts, in the publisher’s primary cloth binding. The novel is “now recognized as one of the greatest of all his works . . . It is also the first one to have an explicitly contemporary setting” ( ODNB ).
form, the publishers apparently continued to offer the part numbers. Collectors have long sought a “Prime Pickwick”, a set of 19 original monthly parts (the last a double number) matching these points of earliest issue in each part, as set forth in the key bibliographies. With only a few hundred of the earlier parts printed, and their low survival rate, this is effectively an unobtainable objective for the modern collector. In Eckel’s 1928 census, Prime Pickwicks in Parts , only 14 sets were identified, of which no more than a few extra have since been added. The “prime” Jerome Kern copy made $28,000 dollars at auction in 1929, a price which can be compared to £15,000 realized for a Shakespeare First Folio in 1933. With such “prime” sets bordering on the unachievable, appearing on the market very rarely and extraordinarily expensive when they do, collectors have instead long sought to acquire as “prime” a set as possible, matching as many of the earliest issue points as they can. The present copy represents a valiant effort by the Liverpool collector W. H. Collis, gathered by him in the early 1930s and matching a substantial number of the desired points. Collis collected Dickens extensively, with copies in the parts of most of the novels. He built up other sets of Pickwick – another of his sets, matching very nearly all of the requisite points, achieved £50,250 (including premium) at Bonhams in December 2021. That was his “1st set”, this noted as the “2nd set” on his inserted notes. The set reflects the habit of collectors of the time to merge and sophisticate sets, transferring plates and advertisements between parts (and transferring plates from copies bound as books) to tick off the requisite points. Collis has placed each part in a brown sleeve, with notes on what he has supplied, and which points it meets. This practice would be frowned on today as muddying the bibliographic record, but was common – indeed, inserted with the set is a letter from the Dickens bibliographer Thomas Hatton, requesting that Collis supply him with two advertisements which he had promised to someone else when he sold them a set. This Collis did, according to a note on the letter, but the advertisements are here present, and so were evidently re-supplied afterwards. It is also worth noting, when considering the extent of sophistication which occurred for Pickwick and other Dickens novels in parts in the period, that most of the points which have been outlined as earliest issue, have also at some point or other been challenged by a different authority. Hatton’s letter here includes an attack on his rival bibliographer Eckel’s “points” for Dickens’s Child’s
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Following issue in parts from September 1846 to March 1848, Bradbury and Evans issued the novel in book form in the present cloth. In the 19th number of the part issue, a slip advertised the novel, ready for delivery on 12 April, at £1 1s. in cloth, or £1 4s. 6d in half morocco. The slip goes on to note “Subscribers desirous of having their copies bound in a similar style can have them done by Messrs. Chapman & Hall, 186, Strand, or through their Booksellers, at the following prices:– Whole bound, morocco gilt edges 6s. 6d. Half bound, marble leaves, 4[s.] 6[d]. In cloth, lettered 1[s.] 6[d]”. This copy represents an owner of the parts making use of these binding services, with the characteristic stab-holes in the gutter where unstitched from the wrappers. At such a reduced price (1s. 6d compared to £1 1s for a new copy in cloth), it is evident why an owner of a complete set in parts would prefer having them bound, rather than purchasing a new book form copy. Demy octavo. Original green diaper cloth, Kremers’ “marigold” (primary), spine lettered in gilt, spine and covers with elaborate design in blind, cream endpapers. Frontispiece, vignette title, and 38 plates by Phiz; plate 35 being the first published example of a “dark plate”. Expertly recased with neat repair at spine ends and joints, spine and extremities a little sunned, slight stain to front cover and ringstain to rear, some foxing as usual, plates browned and stained at foot. A very good copy. ¶ Smith I, 8. Lars Kremers, “A Comparative Bibliography of the Sheets and Publishers’ Cloth Cases of the Demy Octavo Works of Charles Dickens, 1837–1872”, 2013, pp. 210–211. £1,750 [154186]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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