Oct 24, 2024 - Sale 2683

Sale 2683 - Lot 201

Price Realized: $ 2,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, First Edition in Parts, the Thomas Hatton Copy.

London: Chapman & Hall, April 1838-October 1839.

First edition, first issue, 20 monthly parts in 19 octavo booklets; illustrated with a frontispiece portrait by Daniel Maclise and 39 etched plates by H.K. Browne ("Phiz"); bound in original green pictorial wrappers, uncut with two or three gatherings of ads unopened (new tissue guards laid-in, a few plates lightly toned, two browned & foxed, some with occasional minor spots; sporadic light spotting; most spines with repairs, a few expertly rebacked; overall a clean set); all contained in a custom chemise and patterned morocco backed slipcase by R. Shepard of Arizona; 9 x 5 1/2 in.

Additional Issue Points: with all parts housed in the correct, first issue wrappers as called for by Hatton & Cleaver, except part VI, where the inside wrapper ends in "Demerara"; first issue of the text, with "visiter" for "sister" on p. 123 of part IV and "latter" instead of "letter" on part V, p. 160; first state of plates, parts I and II including the publisher's imprint, as well as the first state of plate 29 with the longform caption, "PHIZ" in all caps, and the dot preceding the "P" and following "I"; all advertisements present as called for except the Mechi catalogue and two pages of the Nickleby Advertiser in part II, the scarce Joseph Amesbury ad in part III, and the Robert Tyas ad in part VIII; the rare "Hill's Seal Wafers" ad is present but without the five seal specimens.

With annotations by renowned Dickens bibliographer Thomas Hatton, noting this set as "CNP", meaning "clean and perfect" with his initials alongside the notation. Also penciled to the rear wrapper of Part VI is, "No. 920 - clean and perfect;" as well as the number "6" and letter "C" on the verso of plate 11 and final page of text.

Eckel, pp. 64-66; Hatton & Cleaver, pp. 131-160.

Provenance: Mortimer L. Schiff, 1877-1931 with armorial bookplate; Thomas Hatton initialed pencil annotations; Charles L. & Sandy Parkhurst with armorial bookplate.