Books

First editions, a finely bound complete set of Dickens's Christmas Books. Following the instant success of A Christmas Carol, Dickens produced a small festive book for the next few successive seasons, skipping Christmas 1847 to focus on completing his novel Dombey and Son, and concluding the project with The Haunted Man for Christmas 1848. The binder, Samuel Tout (1841-1902), was based in Soho from 1868 to 1879, thereafter in Whitechapel, where he briefly worked with William Coward. Tout was also an early member of the staff of Karslake's Hampstead Bindery, which opened in Charing Cross in 1898. Each volume includes the engraved bookplate from the Charles Dickens collection of B. George Ulizio (1889-1969) on the front pastedowns. The bulk of Ulizio's collection of British and American literature is now held at Kent State University. A Christmas Carol is in Smith's first issue, p. 1 giving "Stave I", and with all the uncorrected textual readings. Its title page is printed in red and blue and dated 1843, indicating Smith's first or second state. The cloth, bound in at end, is in the first issue, the upper serif in "D" for Dickens unbroken and with the closest distance between the gilt wreath and blind stamping on the left side measuring 14 mm. The Chimes has the first state vignette title page with the publisher's name above that of the illustrator and engraver. The Cricket on the Hearth has the advertisement leaf in the second state, headed by "New Edition of Oliver Twist". The Battle of Life has the engraved title page in the fourth state, omitting the publisher's name underneath a cupid holding "A Love Story" banner. READ MORE Together, 5 works, octavo (162 x 101 mm). Uniformly bound in near-contemporary green half morocco by Samuel Tout, spines lettered in gilt, central device in gilt-framed compartments, twin gilt rule to sides and corners, marbled sides and endpapers, edges gilt, red silk bookmarkers. All with original cloth spines and front covers bound in at rear. Christmas Carol with steel-engraved frontispiece and 3 plates, all colored by hand, as issued, other works with uncolored frontispiece and engraved title page, all with illustrations in the text, after Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Stone, a Frontispiece rectos of all but Christmas Carol with an early ownership inscription sometime washed and concealed via sheet backing. Spines uniformly darkened, gilt unaffected and bright, offsetting to final leaves from the cloth bound in, else generally clean, small marginal paper restoration to Cricket on the Hearth, pp. 59-61. A very handsome set. Smith II 4, 5, 6, 8, 9.

The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, a Christmas novella by Charles Dickens, was published in 1848. It follows the story of Professor Redlaw who is haunted by a ghost that offers to erase his memories of sorrow and grief.