Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
With Forty-Two Illustrations by John Tenniel. Sixth 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, etc.
Offered here for sale is a very rare example 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 6,000 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.
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Size: 13 x 19 cm (approx.)
Condition:
Some discolouration to the backstrip with wear and slight loss to the extremities, though significantly better than typically found. Some wear to joints with the backstrip cracked along the rear gutter though fully attached and without structural issue. Some rubbing to boards with minor discolouration, some very small black dots to head of front board. Very minor gilt loss. Some wear to corners with shelf and edge wear. Original blue endpapers & pastedowns without any attached bookplates but with the original bookbinder's stamp to the foot of the rear pastedown of Burn & Co as called for also with the original bookseller's stamp of W.H. Smith & Son, London as originally offered for sale in the 1860s. All page edges gilt with top edge dulled slightly as typical. The text block is slightly lower in the binding than typical thus causing a slight shelf lean, probably as published. Some wear to inner hinges with netting slightly exposed at the front and mostly so at the rear. Tissue guard for frontispiece creased but present and original. Text block in excellent condition, very clean without any of the illustrations coloured in. No rips, tears, or stains. All leaves present and collated as complete.
