Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. With Forty-Two Illustrations by John Tenniel. Sixth Thousand. London: Macmillan and Co, 1867.
THE FIRST EDITION OF PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT CHILDREN'S BOOK EVER PUBLISHED IN THE ORIGINAL PUBLISHER'S CLOTH BINDING.
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a notoriously difficult book to find in early edition form with very few copies printed. This is one of the first six thousand copies of this book ever printed. Using the data from Lewis Carroll's bibliography by Roger Lancelyn Green and Macmillan's Bibliographical Catalogue from 1891, we find that the original 1865 edition was printed with 2,000 copies, for which almost no copies survive in private hands, the last selling for $2.9 million at Sotheby's and is generally considered unobtainable. That edition was never actually published and the fact that a couple of copies exist is more by chance than original intent.
The first published edition arrived in 1866 with 3,000 copies (or 2,000, sources differ), and the second printing of this first edition was printed in a print run of just 1,000 copies, with the third printing also having an extremely small print run of just 1,000 copies, which is what this copy is from. The very small print run of this makes it one of the rarest printings of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and also one of the earliest it is possible to obtain, with the 1866 first edition often selling for over $40,000 at auction in nice original condition. We sold a 'sixth thousand' example for £5,200 (GBP) in 2023, and so here is a fantastic opportunity to get a very early example of the most important children's book in completely original condition. It's worth mentioning that some sources regard these printings as separate editions thus making this the fourth overall, or third published (obtainable) edition, but they are better considered as printings.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was originally published in notoriously fragile red cloth and examples in original condition are very scarce and if encountered, are usually in very poor condition. Our example offered here is in generally nice condition, with some flaws as to be expected - these were mostly owned and read by children, where one often finds illustrations naively coloured in, leaves torn or missing, etc. This copy is complete without any missing pages, with the original endpapers, etc.
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Size: 129 x 186 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[(1), 6ff, pp.[1]-192, (1)]
Original publisher's full red cloth binding in fully original condition, retaining the original endpapers and even the original bookbinder's ticket to the rear pastedown. Both boards are securely attached, joints a little rubbed as usual, but not cracked and generally very good, the binding secure, hinges cracked. Backstrip significantly dulled as often but generally without loss to the gilt title. Boards a little rubbed, the cloth is rippled and raised in places, but generally remains bright and attractive. Bookseller ticket to foot of front pastedown, else without any bookplates or ownership inscriptions. Text block mildly toned but generally in excellent condition throughout, certainly significantly better than typically encountered. Some gatherings slightly misbound, potentially as originally bound. Some very minor uneven toning to title page and tissue guard. Light pencil marks to contents page, else internally excellent overall. A superior copy of this very scarce early copy of Alice in Wonderland, one of the earliest obtainable copies.
[Green 42].
