Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
DICKENS, CHARLES. A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Bradbury & Evans, London, 1852.
Price: US$1127.66 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: pp: [ix]x-xii[1]2-210 [1]; [vii]viii [1]2-214 [1]; [v]vi-vii[1]2-321 [1]. FIRST EDITION. THREE volumes uniformly bound in red half leather over marbled boards, raised bands and gilt lettering to spine. Marbled endpapers, frontispiece illustrations by F.W. Topham. The first appearance of this book was in 'Household Words' from December, 1852. A very good set with darkening to the spines of all three volumes. The original ribbon markers are present but none are still attached.
Seller: MAPLE RIDGE BOOKS, UXBRIDGE, ON, Canada
Dickens, Charles. A Child's History of England (3 vols.). London Bradbury & Evans, 1852.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First edition. Three volumes complete as issued, 1852/1853/1854. Gilded lettering on spines and front cover decorations. Marbled edges. Fraying to spine ends on all three books. Corners starting to fray. Stains to back covers volumes I and III and front cover volume I. Some cover soiling to books. Some fading to spine volume I. Front hinge cracked volume I. Small pencil marks to margins in a few of the pages volume I. Else, all books are in good condition. (R5)
Seller: Jeff Jeremias Fine Arts, RMABA, Aurora, CO, U.S.A.
Dickens, Charles. A Child's History of England. Bradbury & Evans, London, 1852.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 1852, 1853, 1854 [but 1851-1853]. Three volumes. First edition in book form. Bound without ads in half crushed red morocco over marbled boards. Very Good. Bindings lightly rubbed, spines faded, owner names and bookplates at front. Dickens' anti-aristocratic and anti-monarchical history of England, written for children.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Dickens, Charles. Child's History of England. Bradbury & Evans, London, 1852, 1853, 1854, 1852.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First Editions, published 1852, 1853, 1854. Three volumes in original red-brown cloth binding, blind-stamped and gilt pictorial embossed boards, marbled end-papers and page edges, each volume with the half titles and engraved frontispieces by F. W. Topham. Very Good, spines dulled and chips to cloth at spines of Vols. I and III, boards soiled and with light edge wear, scattered toning generally confined to end papers. Vol. II with faint contemporary gift inscription dated 1853 at head of title page. Vols. II and III with one page of ads at rear, Vol. I has no ads. Size: 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall
Seller: Dale Steffey Books, ABAA, ILAB, Bloomington, IN, U.S.A.
Price: US$1600.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Beautiful full brown morocco set, bound by Henry Sotheran of London, with a blindstamped gilt cameo portrait as a centerpiece on each volume's front board, a gilt impression of his autograph on each rear board, and English or kingly devices stamped into the spine compartments (a crown, an abstract rose, a fleur-de-lys, an armorial lion). Original cloth front covers, with gilt vignettes, bound into respective volumes. With first issue points: "Christmas 1851" in Vol. I Dedication; missing "xi" for page number in this first volume; missing "6" for Chapter XXV Table of Contents of Vol. II. (But does have "287" for page number of third volume.) With ads in all volumes. Gilt edges. Gilt ruling. Light wear of custom cloth slipcase.
Seller: White Fox Rare Books, ABAA/ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$1661.10 + shipping
Description: London: Bradbury & Evans, 1852-1854. Small 8vo. Original blind-stamped cloth with gilt illustrations (shelf-soiled). Plain protective sleeve. Housed in custom made slip-cases (touch rubbed). With black and white frontispieces with foxed tissue-guards, marbled end-papers and text block. Previous owners bookplate on front end-papers and name on half title-pages. Hinges starting. Foxing on preliminary papers, otherwise a very good copy of this first edition set. NOTE: This set was originally published in Household Words in serial form from January 1851 to December 1853. It is one of his few non-fiction works with other titles including 'Pictures from Italy' and 'American Notes for General Circulation'.
Seller: Berkelouw Rare Books, Berrima, NSW, Australia
DICKENS, Charles.. A Child's History of England.. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1852-54 [1851-53], 1852.
Price: US$1749.03 + shipping
Description: First editions in book form. Dickens's history of England for children, "intensely anti-aristocratic and anti-monarchical" (ODNB), originally appeared anonymously in Household Words between January 1851 and December 1853, with the volumes published in book-form in the December of those years, post-dated to the following years. In style, subject and composition, the book differed from all Dickens's other works. Smith II, 10. 3 volumes, duodecimo. Original red cloth, gilt titles and decoration to spine, blind stamped border and gilt pictorial decoration to front board, marbled endpapers and edges. Each volume with the half-titles and engraved frontispieces by F. W. Topham. Spines slightly faded, a couple of ink splashes to covers, small puncture to spine of Vol. III, minor wear to spine ends and tips, some pencilled notes and the odd spot of foxing to contents. A very good set.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$2544.05 + shipping
Description: First editions in book form, first issues with the advertisements at the ends of each volume with the relevant points. Dickens's history of England for children, "intensely anti-aristocratic and anti-monarchical" (ODNB), originally appeared anonymously in Household Words between January 1851 and December 1853, with the volumes published in book-form in the December of those years, post-dated to the following years. In style, subject and composition, the book differed from all Dickens's other works. Eckel p. 128; Smith II, 10. 3 volumes, large sextodecimo. Original reddish-brown cloth, gilt titles and decoration to spines, blind stamped border and gilt pictorial decoration to front covers, marbled endpapers and edges. Each volume with the half-titles and engraved frontispieces by F. W. Topham. Contemporary ownership signature to half-title of vol. I. Loss at head of spine of vol. I, front hinges just starting, some light foxing to contents. A fresh set, cloth bright.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$2862.05 + shipping
Description: First edition in book form, first issue, in particularly nice condition - a slip from the 20th-century bookseller Charles Sessler of Philadelphia calls it "one of the most brilliant sets in existence". The work differs from all Dickens's other works in style, subject and composition, and is without question a radical interpretation of English history: "intensely anti-aristocratic and anti-monarchical" (ODNB). Dickens "thought that the book was innovatory in its iconoclasm and its support of 'The People'. Passionate in its partisanship, unbalanced in what it chooses to include, the book is mostly a record of bloodshed. There is hardly a page without macabre detail of torture, burnings, beheadings, massacre, and human cruelty. G. K. Chesterton felt that A Child's History represented 'the cock-sure, healthy-minded, essentially manly and essentially ungentlemanly view of history which characterised the Radicals of that particular Radical era'. This is certainly true of the book's jingoism, contempt for the past, and admiration of the present, but the savage emotion and the violence belong uniquely to Dickens" (Schlicke, p. 97). The work originally appeared anonymously in Household Words between January 1851 and December 1853, with the volumes published in book-form in the December of those years, post-dated to the following years. Later issues altered the terminal advertisements of Dickens's works to include A Child's History of England. Eckel, p. 128; Smith II, 10. Paul Schlicke, ed., The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens, 2011. 3 volumes, large sextodecimo. Original reddish-brown cloth, spines lettered and decorated in gilt, blind stamped border and gilt pictorial decoration to front covers, marbled endpapers and edges. Housed in a custom green cloth chemise and slipcase. Engraved frontispieces by F. W. Topham. Recent bookplate of Peter Russell to chemise. Very light sunning to spines and rubbing to joints, else a fine set.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$3162.50 + shipping
Description: With a frontis by Topham, 6 x 4.75. full gilt ruled red morocco, aeg; SIGNED BINDINGS BY RIVIERE, 210 pp, 214 pp, 321 pp, covers with some extremity wear, hinges loose, but still a nicely bound set of the FIRST ED with the original cloth front covers and spines bound in. With small booksellers label for Robson & Kerslake, Haymarket, London in Volume 1.
Seller: John K King Used & Rare Books, Detroit, MI, U.S.A.
Price: US$3195.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Three volume set of this early Dickens title, dated 1852, 1853, 1854 respectively. All first editions/first issues in original reddish brown cloth. Marbled endpapers and all edges marbled. Backstrips stamped in gold lettering inside elaborate shield shaped ornamental design. Boards stamped in blind front and rear, and gilt motif of Alfred reading to his mother in center on each cover. Each volume illustrated with frontispiece by W. Topham. Minor sunning to backstrips and volume III has two minute punctures to cloth at upper and lower backstrip. Minor wear to corners as usual and incidental age soiling to cloth. Former owner's bookplate in each volume reads: "J. Steele Coldstream Guards". Overall a superior set in the original cloth, which is becoming much more difficult to find. Scans are available on request. Eckel p.127-9; Smith II p.75.
Seller: Great Expectations Rare Books, Staten Island, NYC, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$3737.50 + shipping
Description: 3 vols. Frontispieces, 6 x 4.75", gilt-dec embossed pink/violet ribbed cloth, 210pp, 214pp, 321pp +1p ads, covers rubbed and soiled, extremities bumped, spines sunned, spine tops bumped and chipped (more-so on vol. 3) ,hinges loose, former owner's bold ink name on vol. 1 half title, pp toned, some foxing to prelims (darker in vol. 3), frontis illus. identical in vols. 1 and 3. FIRST EDITIONS (per Walter E. Smith's bibliography), with "P" missing vol. 1 page xi, "6" missing from page Chapter XXV in index of vol. 2, and "7" missing from vol. 3 page "287" and "Christmas 1851" in dedication. HOUSED IN CUSTOM GILT-LETTERED AND GILT- DEC CRUSHED MOROCCO AND CLOTH CLAMSHELL BOX, by Bayntun-Riviere, though not identified as such (comes from a matched collection of Dickens' Firsts all bound by Bayntun-Riviere).
Seller: John K King Used & Rare Books, Detroit, MI, U.S.A.
DICKENS Charles. Child's History of England. , 1852.
Price: US$4500.00 + shipping
Description: "DICKENS, Charles. A Child's History of England. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1852-54. Three volumes. Small octavo, late 19th-century full navy morocco gilt, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, marbled endpapers; housed in a custom chemise and slipcase. $4500.First edition, first state, of Dickens's history of England for children, with frontispieces by F.W. Topham, beautifully bound by Alfred Matthews."Very sharp and very opinionated the book bears a strong resemblance to his two historical novels, Barnaby Rudge and A Tale of Two Cities; it is essentially history as theatre, with crowds, confrontations, clashes, battles, death scenes and sundry noises off. But it is also energetically written; Dickens's imagination simply pours into everything he writes or speaks, and so there are moments of great power" (Ackroyd, Dickens, 584). First state, with first state ads in Volumes I and III and with no page number on p. xi in Volume I. Eckel 128-129. Smith II:10. Expert repairs to joints and extremities. A beautifully bound copy."
Seller: Bauman Rare Books, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.