The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Ring an Old Year Out and a New Year In. By Charles Dickens. London: Chapman and Hall, MDCCCXLV (1845).
FIRST EDITION IN THE ORIGINAL CLOTH BINDING. A BEAUTIFUL COPY OF ONE OF DICKENS' FAMOUS CHRISTMAS BOOKS.
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In the original deep red publisher's cloth with blindstamped vine and floral borders and gilt design to the front board, complete with all first edition identification points present as per Smith's bibliography, listed below.
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First Edition Points (as mentioned in Smith II.): (all present)
- Unnumbered pages with no headlines: pp.49, 55, 88, 92, 125, and 135.
- pp.72, line 8, period after "master".
- pp.125 & 174, type loose in the last five lines.
- pp.149, 4 lines up, "him" loose.
- pp. 166, line 1, h in "mother" printed incorrectly with top part missing.
- pp.170, line 7, & pp.171, 2 lines up, some words closely spaced.
Size: 111 x 171 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[(1), 1ff. (advertisement), half title, frontis, vignette title, t.p., 1ff. (list of illustrations), 175pp., 1pp., (1)]
Original red publisher's cloth binding, bright, and structurally secure with both boards securely attached, the binding secure, and without shelf lean. Some minor loss at the extremities of the backstrip. All edges gilt, very good. Collated as complete, including the original pale yellow endpapers. Without attached bookplates, but with a few ink ownership inscriptions to ffep dating between 1845 and 1900 and so extensively tracing the early provenance of this copy. Mildly toned throughout, some light spotting to preliminaries, ending at the main title page, else very clean throughout, internally very good to near fine. A superior copy of this scarce Dickens first edition.
[Smith II., 5].
