Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. With Forty-Two Illustrations by John Tenniel. Seventh Thousand. London: Macmillan and Co, 1867, 8vo, a.e.g.
THE FIRST EDITION OF PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT CHILDREN'S BOOK EVER PUBLISHED IN THE ORIGINAL PUBLISHER'S CLOTH BINDING, EXTERNALLY BRIGHT AND INTERNALLY EXCELLENT!
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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 seven thousand copies of this book ever printed which is very significant given that recent estimates put the total number of sales at over 100 million copies, making this one of the very earliest possible obtainable copies, especially since one of the first 2,000 printed copies is generally worth upwards of $2 million. Of those printed as early as this which survive, very few are still in their original binding, and of those even fewer are in remotely as bright a condition as this example.
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 has very bright cloth and gilt which is particularly remarkable given that these were mostly owned and read by children, where one often finds illustrations naively coloured in, leaves torn or missing, etc. The spine and rear board are particularly excellent.
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Size: 128 x 186 mm (approx.)
Condition:
Externally good, internally near fine.
Collated as complete including the usually missing original endpapers and pastedowns. This is an exceptionally complete example, even with the original tissue guard for the frontispiece, contents leaf, and 3 page prefatory poem. We also find the original binder's ticket to the foot of the rear pastedown, reading 'Bound by Burn, 37 & 38 Kirby St.'
Bound in the original publisher's fragile red cloth binding with the gilt Cheshire Cat to the rear board and gilt Alice to the front. Spine slightly discoloured with the gilt titles bright and attractive thus the book shows very nicely on the shelf. Minor loss to extremities of backstrip as typical. A little loss to the backstrip along the upper front joint and along the joints more generally. Boards are bright and attractive, especially the rear board, with the front board discoloured with a small pink mark (approx. 6 mm) to the upper left of the gilt Alice. Both boards securely attached but with joints cracked and hinges slightly cracked. The rear joints glued. All page edges gilt, very good. Minor shelf and edge wear with minor losses to the bottom corners. Shelf lean such that it is vertically unstable without support.
Without any attached bookplates. Early ink ownership inscription to head of the half title page dated June 1st 1867, a gift inscription from presumably the original purchaser back then. A further neat pencil inscription to verso blank of the half title dated April 1959 in Bournemouth, England. Some minor foxing to this blank and similar to the rear blank (reverso of green endpaper leaves), else the text block is free from foxing and generally exceptionally clean and fully legible. The best internal condition of any early edition of Alice in Wonderland we have encountered to date. Mildly toned throughout as commensurate with the age else internally near fine.
[Green 42].
