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38 DICKENS, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. London: Chapman and Hall, 1839 a finely bound dickens classic First edition in book form, in a handsome Bayntun- Rivière binding. Dickens had been catapulted to fame with the success of The Pickwick Papers , and to secure his next novel Chapman and Hall offered Dickens £150 a part, a sum ten times greater than that which he had received for Pickwick . It met with great public enthusiasm, which has continued unabated: Dickens’s biographer Peter Ackroyd remarks that the novel “has some title to being the funniest novel Dickens ever wrote; it is perhaps the funniest novel in the English language” (p. 262). Octavo (224 × 138 mm). Early 20th-century red morocco by Bayntun-Rivière, spine lettered and decorated in floral gilt compartments, raised bands, portrait of the author to front cover and facsimile signature blocked to the rear in gilt, single gilt fillet to boards, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, binder’s stamp to rear turn-in. Engraved portrait of Dickens by Finden after D. Maclise with facsimile signature and 39 plates by Phiz. Spine faintly sunned, very slight foxing to contents, a near-fine copy. ¶ Smith I.5. Peter Ackroyd, Dickens , 1990. £1,500 [157780]
37 DICKENS, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. London: Chapman and Hall, 1837 handsomely bound and extra illustrated First edition, a superb extra-illustrated copy with the scarce suites of plates by Thomas Sibson and Frederick William Pailthorpe – neither of which are in the celebrated Suzannet and Vander Poel collections – in a particularly fine binding by Rivière, whose work was renowned for “the quality of the materials, the forwarding, and in the delicacy of the tooling” ( ODNB ). This edition includes the complete suite of Sketches of Expeditions from the Pickwick Club , a series of ten unofficial illustrations first published in 1838 to
accompany some of the “most striking scenes” of the novel. Also included is Pailthorpe’s 1882 series, 24 Illustrations to the Pickwick Club , all hand-coloured, described by Grego as “thoroughly in harmony with the first series of plates” by Phiz and Seymour (p. 450). All the original plates are also present in their early states as called for, with no titles or imprints, Dickens’s first novel transformed the obscure journalist into England’s most famous writer within months. The first monthly instalment was issued in an edition of 1,000 copies in April 1836. The work became a publishing sensation after the introduction of Sam Weller in chapter 10, the fourth instalment, issued in July 1836, after which the publishers reprinted the earlier instalments so that readers could catch up. Octavo (270 × 129 mm). Late 19th-century red morocco by Rivière & Son, spine lettered in gilt in floral compartments, raised bands, triple gilt filleting to sides, floral gilt dentelles, dark blue coated endpapers, gilt edges. With original wrappers of part III bound in to rear. 112 engraved plates, including etched vignette title page (“Weller”, no priority), frontispiece, 41 plates by Robert Seymour and H. K. Browne (“Phiz”), with 2 additional plates by R. W. Buss. With bookplates of the barrister Herbert H. Smith to front pastedown and of Jeremy and Penny Martin to front free endpaper, and faded ownership inscription of one Alex F. Little to engraved title page. Very minor rubbing to extremities, light foxing to contents and offsetting from plates, a bright and attractive copy with sharp hand-coloured plates. ¶ Podeschi, H1137; Smith I.3. Joseph Grego, Pictorial Pickwickiana: Charles Dickens and His Illustrators , 1899. £2,500 [157782]
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