?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 9,000
Dickens, Charles (1812-1870) Great Expectations, extra-illustrated first edition.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1861.
First edition, first issue in book form, three octavo volumes; 32 pages of publisher's advertisements dated May, 1861 present at rear and all the first issue points as called for by Smith except the "3" is present in the pagination on page 103, with the period in the headline of page 236 in volume III; this copy with the hand-colored illustrations from the 1885 edition by F.W. Palinthorpe inserted, including a vignette title and a list of plates in volume I; the set finely rebound in full uniform scarlet morocco by Rivière, boards double ruled in gilt, morocco turn-ins gilt-stamped, blue coated endpapers, top edge gilt; publisher's cloth covers and spines laid down and bound in at rear of each volume (expertly rebacked); 7 1/2 x 4 7/8 in.
Dicken's rarest book, Great Expectaions was printed in only 1,000 copies which were quickly bought up upon release. It is one of only two Dickens titles originally published without illustrations, an issue rectified in this special copy with Palinthorpe's delicately hand-colored illustrations from the 1885 edition added. Smith describes a similar extra-illustrated set, also in Rivière bindings at the Huntington Library. Although similar, the present copy seems to be an earlier imprint, with more of the text misprints left in an uncorrected state.
Eckel pp. 91-93; Podeschi/Gimbel A146; Sadleir 688; Smith 14.
