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Christmas Books (A Christmas Carol; The Chimes; The Cricket on the Hearth; The Battle of Life; The Haunted Man)
Charles Dickens
Chapman & Hall, London · 1869
1st Edition. The very rare de luxe collected edition of the 5 Christmas Books. This was the only edition published in Dickens's lifetime to include all the plates from the original editions.
Published for Christmas 1869 in a sole printing of 2,000 copies, only 1,200 went on sale in Britain in this format. Large 8vo volume of 465pp + 4pp of ads at rear. Sumptuously decorated front cover and spine featuring vignettes from the stories in gilt and black.
Sand-grained tan cloth, all edges gilt, chocolate-brown coated endpapers. Original binders ticket (Virtue & Co.) on rear pastedown. Total of 43 illustrations, many of which are tissue-guarded full-page plates.
Neat restoration to minor loss at top of spine using matching period cloth. Front endpapers reinforced at the gutters using matching paper. Clean and sound with just occasional minor foxing.
No other copies available online at time of listing. A great rarity and a thing of beauty in itself. An ideal gift for a Dickens lover.
Leech, Tenniel, Landseer, Maclise, Stone, Stanfield, Doyle (illustrator).
Written by Dr Jeremy Parrott, who has the book in his hands. Nothing here is generated from a catalogue record.
Bibliographic detail
| Author | Dickens, Charles |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Chapman & Hall, London |
| Date | 1869 |
| Edition | 1st Edition |
| Binding | Hardcover |
| Condition | Very Good |
| Stock reference | ab_31712737332 |