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CHARLES DICKENS: THE COLLECTION OF W.H. COLLIS OF LIVERPOOL
Lot 93

DICKENS (CHARLES)
A Christmas Carol, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, FIRST STATE, 'Stave I', Chapman & Hall, 1843

1 December 2021, 12:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £8,287.50 inc. premium

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DICKENS (CHARLES)

A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, FIRST EDITION, Smith's's first issue, first state, with title-page dated 1843 printed in red and blue, the text uncorrected, "Stave I" on p.[1] and yellow endpapers, hand-coloured etched frontispiece and 3 plates after John Leech, 4 wood-engravings by W.J. Linton after Leech, 2pp. advertisements at end, a little light soiling and one or two spots, publisher's cinnamon vertically-ribbed cloth, stamped in blind and gilt (Todd's first impression, second issue, first state, with 12-13mm. between closest points of blind-stamping and gold wreath on upper cover, and the "D" of "Dickens" unbroken), g.e., 3 or 4 small ink spots on covers, corners knocked, head of spine chipped [Eckel pp.110-115; Smith II:4; William B. Todd, in The Book Collector, Winter 1961, pp.449-454], 12mo (164 x 100mm.), Chapman & Hall, 1843

Footnotes

FIRST EDITION OF DICKENS'S FIRST AND MOST ENDURING CHRISTMAS BOOK, the first issue with "Stave I" in the first chapter heading, the text uncorrected, the red and blue title-page dated 1843, and yellow endpapers. Dickens had requested the title be printed in red and green with green endpapers to match, but he was disappointed with the appearance of the green printing. The title was subsequently printed in red and blue, the title-page date changed to 1843 (rather than the gift book convention of using the following year's date), and the green endpapers replaced with yellow ones. However, the sheets continued to be issued in various combinations with no clear priority.

With Scrooge as is central character, A Christmas Carol was published on 19 December 1843, at 5s. "Its popularity was extraordinary and by every post he received letters from complete strangers, telling him about their home and hearths, and how this same 'Carol' was read aloud there, and kept on a little shelf by itself" (Kitton, Minor Writings, p.34). It ran through fourteen editions between 1843 and 1860, with the text comparatively unchanged and printed from the same original setting of type.

Provenance: "From McGoff/ 27.3.1929", loosely inserted note in Collis's hand.

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