CHARLES DICKENS FIRST EDITIONS AT
ASH RARE BOOKS
43 HURON ROAD
LONDON SW17 8RE
UNITED KINGDOM

London : Bradbury & Evans, 1848. First edition, in book form, bound from the original monthly parts published between October 1846 and April 1848. Dickens’ telling tale of father and son, father and daughter – when the fifth instalment appeared, Thackeray – himself in the middle of serialising “Vanity Fair” – exclaimed “There’s no writing against such power as this – no one has a chance! Read that chapter describing young Paul’s death: it is unsurpassed – it is stupendous”. This copy exhibits the dropped “if” on p.426 – a point of no proven significance, any more than all the other errors and minor variations said to indicate a mythical “first issue” – in particular the depiction of Captain Cuttle’s hook on the wrong arm in the title-page vignette. There are no copies depicting it on the correct arm. See the Not Peevish post of 20th December 2013, on the “Bookhunter on Safari” blog.
Demy 8vo (210 x 131mm). xvi,624pp. Etched frontispiece, extra-title and thirty-eight plates by “Phiz” (H. K. Browne). Bound up, without errata leaf or half-title, in a contemporary olive half calf, marbled sides, now neatly rebacked, retaining the original red label; endpapers replaced; some minor scuffing and wear; some browning and spotting to plates, mainly to margins, but overall a good and sound copy.

£250

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London : Bradbury & Evans, 1854. First edition. “What I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts ...”. The book edition appeared a week before the completion of the serialisation in “Household Words”.
Crown 8vo (183 x 121mm). viii,352pp. Bound, complete with half-title, in an elegant late nineteenth-century half sealskin, banded and gilt; marbled sides, edges and endpapers; a few internal slight marks and spots, but overall a very good and attractive copy. With the attractive bookplate of A. Muriel Ritchie. Smith 11.

SOLD

London : Herbert Jenkins, [1948]. Originally published obscurely in 1868, ostensibly by Lieut.-Col. Robin Redforth, aged nine, but here superbly illustrated for the first time by Robert Stewart Sherriffs (1906-1960). “One of the best children’s stories ever written, and the children that do not know it or have never had it read to them, have a special treat in store”.
Foolscap 4to (22cm). (viiii),[ii],(36),[ii]pp. Colour illustrations throughout by Sherriffs. Original red cloth, lettered in gilt; top edge red; endpapers lightly tanned, but otherwise a very good copy in the Sherriffs dust-jacket – the jacket lightly tanned at spine, with repair and reinforcement at head and tail, but complete and attractive still.

£40

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London : W. H. Allen & Co., 1887. First edition. An interesting study and possible solution to 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood', supplied by the prolific writer on astronomy, mathematics, etc.
Crown 8vo (19cm). viii,166,[ii] + (48)pp advertisements dated December 1887. Extra engraved title-page. Original decorative cloth gilt; spine slightly tanned; slight wear to tips; endpapers cracking; a little shaken and slack, but a clean and serviceable copy. With the ex-libris label of the well known doctor-cum-actor, Eric John Llewellyn Jones-Evans (1898-1989), and the earlier dated February 1888 ownership inscription of A. M. Heathcote of Winchester – Arthur Malcolm Heathcote (1847-1934), publisher, author of verse plays for children, reciter, entertainer, etc. Loosely inserted is a stamped and receipted 1935 invoice from the booksellers H. M. Gilbert & Son of Southampton to Dr. Jones-Evans.

£50

To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 39498 – or simply click on the button