Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. With Forty-Two Illustrations by John Tenniel. Eighth Thousand. London, Macmillan & Co, 1867.
FIRST EDITION OF LEWIS CARROLL'S MAGNUM OPUS AND ONE OF THE GREATEST CHILDREN'S BOOKS OF ALL TIME IN COMPLETELY ORIGINAL CONDITION!
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Alice in Wonderland was technically first published in 1865, though only six copies of that edition are in private hands and the last one to come to the market sold for $2,900,000 (2.9 million USD), and the one previous to that in 1970 sold for $1.5 million. That version is therefore regarded by collectors as generally unobtainable. The 'obtainable' first edition first impression of 1866 regularly sells for substantial sums of money. One example being at Christie's 14th September 2021 lot 43 for $43,750 USD, and in their description for this they mention that this book is "notoriously fragile" which is very true, and it is very difficult to find a copy of this book in anything resembling acceptable condition - particularly as these were published as children's books and so were often handled as such, the illustrations coloured in, pages torn out, etc.
Offered here for sale is a very rare opportunity to acquire one of the earliest examples of the first edition of Alice in Wonderland. This is the earliest example of this particularly rare book we have come across and one of the first 8,000 copies ever printed which is of course particularly significant given that modern estimates put total sales of this book in excess of 100 million copies and it has never been out of print since its publication. This "Eighth Thousand" copy is the fourth printing of the first published edition and one of the first 8,000 printed copies of Alice.
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Size: 130 x 188 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[(1), h.t., frontis, t.p., 3ff, 192pp, (1)]
Original publisher's red cloth binding, rubbed, with some staining, and loss along the joints (as often). The gilt of the boards remains bright and attractive. The backstrip is dulled. Joints rubbed, netting exposed, but with both boards attached. Front hinge slightly cracked, rear fine. Original blue endpapers. Faint pencil writing to front pastedown reading 'Shankill Castle', with a gift inscription dated 1881 to the half title reading 'C.S. Bennett to Amelia Burnett'. Retains the original tissue guard for the frontispiece, lightly toned/creased as typical. Internally very clean throughout, a few small marks in places, with a few leaves dog-eared, but generally very good or better internally. A nice copy, notable for its complete originality and very early printing of the first edition.
