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Author(s): Dickens, Charles

Illustrator(s): Browne, H K; [aka Phiz]

First edition, early state. xvi, [2], errata slip, 624pp, with engraved title page, half title and 39 etched plates, including frontispiece, by Halbot K Browne (aka Phiz). Half bound in tan calf's leather over fine patterned cloth, five raised bands on a gilt decorated spine, with gilt lettering on red leather spine label. 8vo. Leather is worn and rubbed through on corners and around spine joints, cracked at base of rear joint, fore edge cloth cracked, with some minor scuffing. Front and rear endpapers absent with resultant fracturing to hinges. Some toning in page margins, spotting on reverse of plates. Occasional minor curl to page corners. Originally published in 20 weekly parts, Bradbury and Evans produced a first softcover in 1846, binding together sets of the original parts. Two years later the first hardback was issued by the same company. It includes frontispiece, vignette on title page and 30 further plates, all by H K Browne, perhaps better known as Phiz, including the first 'dark plate' ever published, On The Road, facing p. 547, and four other vertically orientated plates (both innovatory). Volume features many points of issue: Bradbury & Evans on the title page; title page vignette shows Capt Cuttle with a hook in place of his left hand; 'delight' rather than 'joy' on p. 284; no apostrophe in 'aint' on p.145; 'figetty' rather than 'fidgety' on p.26; 'shewed' and 'shewn' rather than 'showed' and 'shown' on p. 40; no page number in the entry for the frontispiece and vignette in the list of illustrations; 'if' omitted on p. 426. Points no present: Captain is spelt correctly on p. 324; and p. 431 is numbered correctly and Birds-eye is hyphenated in the contents. The errata page is followed by a bound in errata slip with eleven entries over twelve lines. All the plates are etched, with none of the inferior lithography used in some issues when the etched ones had run out (note, no established priority of issue between the etchings and the lithographs). A handsome copy in original binding.

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