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Charles Dickens. The Personal History of David Copperfield. London: Bradbury & Evans, May 1849-November 1850....
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Description
Charles Dickens. The Personal History of David Copperfield. London: Bradbury & Evans, May 1849-November 1850.20 parts in 19, 8vo. Half-title. Engraved frontispiece, additional engraved title and 38 engraved plates by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). Original blue-green pictorial printed wrappers, uncut; cloth folding case.
FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL MONTHLY PARTS, with the "Copperfield Advertiser" in each part, the "Letts's Diaries" advertisement in Part 8, and most of the other inserted advertisements and announcement slips noted in Hatton & Cleaver. This set contains a few single-leaf inserts not mentioned by Hatton & Cleaver, and lacks only a few that are noted: Part 6 has two extra ad leaves, one for "Journal of Design" and one for "Practical Treatise on Musical Composition"; Part 7 lacks the "Punch's Pocket Book" slip that sometimes follows the plates; Part 8 has four pages of ads on green paper rather than the two pages specified by Hatton & Cleaver; and the final part lacks the preliminary "Punch's Pocket Book" and "Douglas Jerrold" slips, and the "Lewis Arundel" leaf at the rear. This set contains the scarce "Letts's Diaries" advertisement in Part 8 with the accompanying six specimen diary leaves (one folding).
David Copperfield was Dickens's eighth novel, written at the midpoint of Dickens's career and very much drawn from the author's own life; it is considered to be the novel that divides Dickens's early works from his later. The novel is scarce in parts. As Eckel notes, the printing was comparatively small, the parts were "much read and roughly handled," and "fine, clean and unrepaired copies" were "difficult to procure" even in 1932.
Condition: A remarkably fine set with wrappers clean and bright; all of the spines are original and with minimal wear or nicks at ends; only a few spines with tiny repairs; wear is limited to a few nicks or short tears to a few wrapper edges (most apparent on the rear cover of Part 19/20), and with a minimal amount of toning, soiling or rubbing. Several of the forty Phiz plates have minor foxing or offsetting (notably those in Parts 8 and 18), but much less than usual; approximately half of the plates are clean and bright; two covers bear the tiny ticket of a contemporary bookseller in Shrewsbury (Shropshire). Overall, an exceptional set.
References: Carr B220; Eckel pp 77-78; Hatton & Cleaver pp 253-272; Podeschi/Gimbel A121.
Provenance: Marie Luise Hinrichs (bookplate on box). The Library of a Minnesota Collector.
Auction Info
2025 December 15 Rare Books Signature® Auction #6323 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
December, 2025
15th
Monday
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