?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
TWAIN, MARK. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Frontispiece and text illustrations by E.W. Kemble, photogravure plate of a portrait bust by Karl Gerhardt (BAL state 1). 4to, publisher's blue pictorial cloth stamped in gilt and black, spine faded with gilt dulled and fraying slightly, corners bumped with some exposure, occasional soiling and surface scratches to covers; front hinge cracked but holding, rear hinge tender, inked ownership inscription and notes in pencil to front flyleaf. New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885
first american edition in the scarce blue cloth. Kevin MacDonnell states that "Blue cloth copies are at least 20 times as rare as green cloth copies." The following first issue points as follows: page [9] with "Decided"; page [13] illustration caption incorrect; and p. 57 ("with the was"); the title-page and p. 283 are cancels. The other known points "are of no significance in determining the sequence of the printing of the sheets. All of these occur at random in relation to each other within copies of the first printing, a strong indicator of the use of multiple plates, and possibly mixed sheets within the collating process" (MacDonnell, Firsts, vol. 8, no. 7/8, 1998, p. 31). BAL 3415.
