The Rarest Dickens in Parts
Sketches by Boz. Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People. With Forty Illustrations by George Cruikshank. New Edition, Complete.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1837.
. Sketches by Boz. Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People. With Forty Illustrations by George Cruikshank. New Edition, Complete. London : Chapman and Hall, 1837.
Full Description:
[DICKENS, Charles]. Sketches by Boz. Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People. With Forty Illustrations by George Cruikshank. New Edition, Complete. London: Chapman and Hall, 1839 [i.e., November 1837-June 1839].
First edition, in the original twenty monthly parts, as issued. Octavo (9 x 5 5/8 inches; 226 x 141 mm). [i-viii], [1]2-526[-528]. Complete with forty inserted plates, including the engraved title-page. This set is remarkably complete when collated against Hatton and Cleaver. With all the text first issue points: with "8" of p. 18 set lower; "0" of p. 50 set higher; p. 83 pagination figures set level and clearly printed; pagination figures on p. 515 printed center; p. 526 with "reeledbefore". Also with every add called for in Hatton & Cleaver, including the often lacking Mechi catalogue for Part III. Only four parts with wrappers that have been substituted or supplied. The wrapper substitutions are: XI front and back (using X); back of XVI replaced with a blank, XVII front in facsimile, back blank, and front and back of XX (using III).
Of the forty inserted plates, all are the correct state, except Plate 11 which is a later state without imprint. Plate 12, "Vauxhall Gardens by Day" is bound in Part X and Plate 19, "Private Theatres" bound in Part VI. Plates 17, 23, and 34 supplied from another copy.
Original pink printed wrappers with cover design by Cruikshank. The thin pink stock for these wrappers did not wear well and some soiling and spotting is inevitable; as expected, the wrappers are a little tired around the edges and the original pink tint has faded. Some occasional foxing and soiling to wrappers. Plates are rather foxed or toned, sometimes obscuring the caption and imprint. Spines generally either repaired or renewed. With an ownership signature erased from upper front wrapper of parts XII and XIII. The set still shows very well. Overall very good. Housed in a full cloth clamshell.
"The Sketches had initially appeared in magazines and daily journals, a few being gathered into book form and published in 1836, with the remainder appearing in 1837 (see lot 7 onwards). The copyright was purchased outright by Chapman and Hall and issued in original parts, a format which had become popular, to coincide with the final part of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. The standard green wrappers were replaced in this instance with pink ones; this change was not well-received by advertisers, resulting in few inset advertisements. Twenty-seven of the etchings had first appeared in the earlier book form, enlarged here to match the additional thirteen supplied for the monthly parts ." (Sotheby's).
"Those to whom the Sketches revealed a new writer saw in them many merits which to us are obscured: they broke entirely new ground, were written in a new style, and despite their frouzy topics, seemed to bring a refreshing breath of reality into the literary atmosphere. Nowadays, the best parts of the book seem to be those which are purely descriptive. Remembering how rare a thing is the ability to depict, really to depict, in words and especially to make interesting a description of the everyday, the commonplace, we gladly recognize Boz's handwork in the first proofs of Dickens' extraordinary power" (Gissing, The Immortal Dickens).
Hatton and Cleaver, pp. 91-128.
HBS 69533.
$22,500.
Price: $22,500.00
Item #69533