Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll First Editions

AN IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY WITH PROVENANCE LINKING DIRECTLY TO LEWIS CARROLL.

 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. With Forty-Two Illustrations by John Tenniel. Thirteenth Thousand. London: Macmillan and Co., 1868. [Together with] Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll. With Fifty Illustrations by John Tenniel. Tenth Thousand. London: Macmillan and Co., 1872.

 

BEAUTIFUL COPIES OF THE FIRST EDITIONS OF BOTH TITLES IN STUNNING FINE BINDINGS BY RIVIERE; A PHENOMENAL SET.

 

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The copy of Through the Looking Glass in this set is a gifted copy from Mona Margaret Paton to Lady Caroline Charteris, dated the year it came out in 1872. Very significantly, it is dated January 1872. This makes it seem very likely that this copy was one of the copies gifted by Lewis Carroll directly to Mona Margaret Paton, as she is known to be the recipient of a copy of another copy which was signed to her from Lewis Carroll dated Christmas 1871. This being just one month later is very interesting, especially as it is known that Lewis Carroll corresponded with Mona Margaret Paton by letter; she was 11 years old. Her being just 11 years old at the time of this inscription is very significant as it seems quite unlikely she would have been able to independently procure a copy for herself, and she regularly corresponded with Lewis Carroll who was known to have gifted her multiple copies of his children's works.

"In 1871, Charles Dodgson, or Lewis Carroll, paid a visit to the island of Arran to see the Edinburgh painter, Joseph Noel Paton, bearing a letter of introduction from George MacDonald. Paton had a reputation as a distinguished artist of religious and mythic subjects but it was as a painter of beautiful and bizarre fairyscapes that he had piqued Carroll’s interest. Though John Tenniel’s images for the Alice books are now much loved, it was Paton whom Carroll had initially wanted as an illustrator for Wonderland’s first publication two years prior.

Despite it being a ‘rainy and misty’ September day, Carroll records that he had a delightful time with Paton, his wife, Maggie, and their large family who were holidaying, as they frequently did, on Scotland’s west coast. This marked the beginning of a long-standing acquaintance with one of Paton’s daughters, Mona Margaret Noel (1860-1928), who was then eleven years old." [1]

Mona Margaret Paton went on to be an author in her own right of children's literature in a similarly fantastical way to Lewis Carroll.

This provenance is clearly incredibly significant as it seems very likely that this copy of Through the Looking Glass was one of several copies gifted by Lewis Carroll to Mona Margaret Paton who then kept one for herself which was dedicated to her (this dedication copy is still known to exist and surfaced on Antiques Roadshow in 2016 along with one of the letters where the two corresponded), and this copy was one she gifted to a friend of hers, Lady Caroline Charteris. Upon Lady Charteris' death, the famous poet George Macdonald wrote a poem dedicated to her. Very significantly, George Macdonald was the mentor of Lewis Carroll and the writer of similar fantastical children's fiction (including The Princess and The Goblin, etc), and so clearly she also had associated links to Lewis Carroll as part of that circle. This makes the gift inscription intrinsically linked to Lewis Carroll on both sides. 

The most conservative case is that this copy of the first edition of Through the Looking Glass was in the circle of all of these people associated with Lewis Carroll, having been gifted by an 11 year old girl in early 1872 immediately upon the printing of this copy (within 2 weeks of it having been printed according to Roger Lancelyn Green's bibliography of Lewis Carroll). The best case is that Lewis Carroll himself gifted this copy and it was subsequently re-gifted, which from our perspective seems like the far more likely option given just how early the inscription is when compared to the release date of this print run (10th thousand).

 

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Provenance:

Bookplate of Joan Krabbe to pastedown of both volumes.

Very important ink inscription reading "To Lady Caroline Charteris from Mona M. Paton Jany 31. 1872." in Through the Looking Glass volume (only).

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Very finely bound by Riviere & Son.

 

 

Size: 131 x 187 mm (approx., each)

 

Condition: 

[(3), h.t., frontis, t.p., 6pp., 192pp., (1), 3ff. (cloth binding), (3)]; [(3), h.t., frontis, t.p., 6pp., 224pp., 1pp., 1pp. (advertisements), (2), 3ff. (cloth binding), (3)].

Riviere & Son's matching full calf bindings with green tooled labels to spines in compartments between raised bands, with the other compartments comprising of decorative gilt tooling. A Lovely matching finely bound set. The original cloth bindings are found at the rear of the text blocks in both volumes. The original binding cloths have some wear and marks but are generally very bright, more wear appearing on the spines, and more prominently so the Alice in Wonderland cloth. The full calf bindings are in great condition with some light rubbing and scuffing, and with a small number of slightly more prominent scuffs. Spines are lightly rubbed but the gilt is vibrant and they show well on the shelf. Very minor sunning to tooled labels. All boards securely attached with rubbing along joints and very minor wear to hinges. Very minor spots of rubbing along and near the hinges. Shelf and edge wear. No shelf lean. The boards are lightly warped. Corners very lightly turned-in. All page edges gilt with some minor scratches. Small dark marks to the top of the side page edge of Alice in Wonderland. Lovely and bright gilt turn-ins. Bookplate of Joan Krabbe attached to the front pastedown in both volumes. Small snippet from a previous purchase/catalogue bound in between front blanks in Alice in Wonderland, causing offsetting to both blanks where the snippet touches them directly. Text blocks very clean with very light edge toning and occasional foxing, and very sporadic very minor marks. Binder's stamp to front blank in both volumes, dulled in Alice in Wonderland. Very small spots of discolouration to navy endpapers in both volumes. Blank pages which the original cloth bindings are attached onto, have offset in the shape of the spine, to the page in front and behind.

Text block of Alice in Wonderland: Very small pencil "R" to the white space of pp.1. Very small edge tear to the bottom of B1. Very small pencil inscription in the marginalia of pp.95 reading "G5". Tear to the bottom of O4, not affecting any text. Very small pencil inscription to the white space of pp.192 reading "L".

Text block of Through the Looking-Glass: Ink gift inscription dated 1872 to the half title, with a very small dot of the ink seeping through to the other side and transferring to the page opposite. Very small pencil inscription reading "4" to the white space on the first page of the preliminary poem. Very small pencil inscription reading "5" to the white space on the third page of the preliminary poem. Very small pencil inscription reading "4" to the white space on the contents page. Very small pencil inscription reading "R" to the white space on pp.1. Small and very minor damp stain (?) to pp.11, only visible upon close inspection. Small edge tear to the bottom of C3. Very small crease to C4. Small crease/indent to C5 and C6 to the marginalia. Very small crease/indent to D5-E1. The outer corner of the illustration on pp.212 has somewhat seeped through to pp.211, not affecting any text. Very small pencil inscription in the marginalia on the advertisement page. 

[William Madan and Green 42 & 84].