The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club by Charles Dickens.
With Illustrations by R. Seymour and Phiz. London; Chapman and Hall; MDCCCXXXVII (1837).
FIRST EDITION of Dickens' first published work in book form.
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Provenance:
Ink inscription of "Henry P. Crofts."
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No copies of the first edition of the Pickwick Papers will have all of the first issue points as they were bound up from the original parts. A generally comprehensive list of the key first impression points is listed below.
This copy has [2] of the 7 Smith points and the scarcer 'Veller' state of the engraved title page.
Edition Points:
The 7 'unequivocal' first issue points as defined by Walter E. Smith:
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pp.260 line 29 "hodling" for "holding"
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pp.276 figure "7" in page number slightly above other figures.
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pp.341 line 1 correct reading of "inde-licate"; line 5 correct reading of "inscription" with stab holes.
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pp.342 line 5: "S. Veller" uncorrected" (present)
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pp.400 line 21 "this friends" for "his friends"
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pp.432 headline "F" in "OF" imperfect (present)
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"E" signature to pp.25 lacking
Other important early impression points include:
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2 suppressed Buss plates to versos of pp.69 & pp.74 (didn't appear after November 1836)
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'Veller' for 'Weller' on vignette title with 'Phiz fecit' rather than 'Phi fec't (both issued simultaneously, but Veller less common). (present)
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6 line errata page to verso of directions to the binder (pp.xv-xvi) (present)
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'E' signature to pp.25 and pp.27 (present)
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Frontispiece chair with 4 stripes (present)
Condition:
[(1), frontis, vignette title, t.p., v-xiv, 2pp., 609pp., (1)].
Half green calf over marbled paper backed boards with a brown tooled label in a compartment to the spine between raised bands, other compartments with simple decorative blind-stamping and with small decorative gilt to raised bands. Binding rubbed and scuffed, marbled paper dulled, and spine somewhat sunned with some marks/discolouration. Both boards attached with rubbing along joints and minor wear to hinges. Shelf and edge wear. Marbled page edges dulled. Slight shelf lean. No attached bookplate. Ink ownership inscription to front pastedown and title page. Frontispiece and vignette title page oxidised. Text block very clean with light edge toning and occasional foxing. Plates somewhat oxidised. Small number of gatherings partially detached but secure, and one gathering mostly detached pp.501-512, thus these gathering stick outside of the page block and are creased at the edges. Few occasional cracks in the text block, not affecting how the leaves are attached. Occasional creasing in the gutters to some leaves.
[Smith I., 3].
