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CHARLES DICKENS: THE COLLECTION OF W.H. COLLIS OF LIVERPOOL
Lot 131

DICKENS (CHARLES)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, IN 6 ORIGINAL PARTS, WITH AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY DICKENS, loosely inserted along with autograph envelope, Chapman and Hall, April-September 1870

1 December 2021, 12:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £3,187.50 inc. premium

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DICKENS (CHARLES)

The Mystery of Edwin Drood, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, IN 6 ORIGINAL PARTS, WITH AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY DICKENS, loosely inserted along with autograph envelope, a carte-de-visite portrait of Dickens by J. & C. Watkins published by Mason & Co., and a letter from Thomas Hatton, engraved portrait, additional vignette title and 12 wood-engraved plates after Luke Fildes, publisher's blue printed pictorial wrappers after C.A. Collins, parts 1-3 unopened, part 6 with "eighteenpence" slip pasted over price, some small chips and nicks to edges and spine ends, parts 3, 5 and 6 neatly repaired and/or partially made up, preserved in felt-lined green cloth solander box with red morocco spine label [Eckel p.96; Gimbel A154; Hatton & Cleaver p.373-384], 8vo, Chapman and Hall, April-September 1870

Footnotes

DICKENS'S FINAL UNFINISHED NOVEL IN ORIGINAL PARTS, TOGETHER WITH A LETTER WRITTEN SIX DAYS BEFORE HIS DEATH. The one-page autograph letter, written on Gad's Hill Place headed notepaper at a time when he was busy working on Drood, is dated Friday 3 June 1870, and addressed ("Dear Sir") to Thomas Wright of Regent's Park, London, presumably after neglecting to enclose a cheque ("In the hurry of saving the day's post for many letters, the enclosed was left in my cheque book when I wrote to you. I am very sorry to have caused you trouble/ Faithfully yours/ Charles Dickens".

The advertisements present in this set are more than complete as called for by Hatton & Cleaver, including the fragile 'Cork Hat'" slip in part 2, and an additional advertisement at the end of part 5 for 'John F. Dunn's... half-calf series', printed on lilac paper. The rare Chapman and Hall 8pp. catalogue in part 5 is loosely inserted, Collis noting that "all my 11 copies are without C&H. advs: I have never seen a part 5 containing [these]"; whilst Hatton, in his letter sending Collis some "oddments", rather remarkably states "contrary to your experience I have never seen a Part 5 lacking these adverts". Part 6 has both the Wilcox & Gibbs variants, Hatton & Cleaver's 1a being loosely inserted.

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