The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club by Charles Dickens.
With Forty-Three Illustrations by R. Seymour and Phiz. London; Chapman and Hall; MDCCCXXXVII (1837).
FIRST EDITION of Dickens' first published novel in book form.
-------------------
Provenance:
Ink inscription reading "J. G. Coward The gift of his mother 19th October 1883."
-------------------
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.
-------------------
Edition Points:
The 7 'unequivocal' first issue points as defined by Walter E. Smith:
-
pp.260 line 29 "hodling" for "holding".
-
pp.276 figure "7" in page number slightly above other figures.
-
pp.341 line 1 correct reading of "inde-licate"; line 5 correct reading of "inscription" with stab holes.
-
pp.342 line 5: "S. Veller" uncorrected. (Present)
-
pp.400 line 21 "this friends" for "his friends".
-
pp.432 headline "F" in "OF" imperfect. (Present)
-
"E" signature to pp.25 lacking.
Other early impression points include:
-
2 suppressed Buss plates to versos of pp.69 & pp.74 (didn't appear after November 1836)
-
'Veller' for 'Weller' on vignette title with 'Phiz fecit' rather than 'Phi fec't (both issued simultaneously, but Veller less common). (Present)
-
6 line errata page to verso of directions to the binder (pp.xv-xvi). (Present)
-
'E' signature to pp.25 and pp.27 (Present)
-
Frontispiece chair with 4 stripes (Present)
Size: 148 209 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[(3), frontis, engraved title, t.p., v-xiv, 609pp., (3)].
Half brown calf over marbled paper backed boards with a gilt title to the spine in a compartment between gilt bands, other compartments with simple gilt decorations. Gilt to spine somewhat dulled. Spine prominently rubbed. Boards lightly rubbed and scuffed. Both boards attached with rubbing along joints and hinges cracked, thus somewhat fragile. Shelf and edge wear. Red spotted page edges dulled. Slight shelf lean. No attached bookplates. Ink gift inscription to front blank. Text block very clean with light edge toning and occasional foxing and mark.
[Smith I., 3].
