Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$400.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1877. First American Edition. 16mo (12.5cm.); publisher's reddish-brown decorative cloth embossed in black and gilt; 80pp.; illus. in text, publisher's ads printed in red on endpapers. Extremities a bit rubbed and spine lettering starting to dull, textblock a bit toned and shaken in binding; overall Very Good. The third known edition of Dickens' early attempt at light comedy, though the first published appearance of 1837 is, as Eckels mournfully notes, almost certainly extinct, the last known copy having been lost in a fire. The first "available" English edition of ca. 1873 is an impossible rarity, making this American issue essentially the earliest edition on the market. [ECKELS, p. 178; GIMBEL B62].
Seller: Capitol Hill Books, ABAA, Washington, DC, U.S.A.
Dickens, Charles. MR. NIGHTINGALE'S DIARY: A Farce in One Act. , 1877.
Price: US$475.00 + shipping
Description: Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1877. Original terra-cotta cloth decorated in black. First "Collectible" Edition of this play first performed in 1851. We say first "collectible" because there are only four known copies of the original 1851 pamphlet; supposedly a fifth, from which Osgood printed this edition, was destroyed in the Boston fire of 1879. This is a volume in the publisher's "Vest Pocket Series," so named for its diminutive size (a second Dickens "comic burletta" was published in this series the same year -- IS SHE HIS WIFE?). This copy is terra-cotta in color; others are green, without priority. It is a bright, near-fine copy (minor rubbing at the tips, one small mark on the fore-edge of the leaves) -- quite uncommon in this condition. Eckel pp 64-5.
Seller: Sumner & Stillman [ABAA], Yarmouth, ME, U.S.A.
Price: US$680.20 + shipping
Description: Illus. Orig. brick brown cloth, spine lettered in black, front board lettered in gilt & blocked in black; spine a little rubbed at head & tail, small mark from label removal in lower margin of front board. Ads on e.ps printed in red. Partially removed bookseller's ticket on leading pastedown. A good-plus copy. Gimbel B62. Originally performed at the St. James's Theatre, London, in March 1837. There are no known survivors of the first English edition (the last known copy was destroyed in a fire in Boston in the 1870s), and the second, published by Chapman & Hall around 1873 is exceedingly rare. This is the scarce first American edition, and the only one of the first three editions seen in commerce.
Seller: Jarndyce, The 19th Century Booksellers, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$680.20 + shipping
Description: Illus. Ads on e.ps printed in red. Orig. brick brown cloth, spine lettered in black, front board lettered in gilt & blocked in black; spine v. sl. rubbed at head. v.g. Gimbel B62. Originally performed at the St. James's Theatre, London, in March 1837. There are no known survivors of the first English edition (the last known copy was destroyed in a fire in Boston in the 1870s), and the second, published by Chapman & Hall around 1873 is exceedingly rare. This is the scarce first American edition, and the only one of the first three editions seen in commerce.
Seller: Jarndyce, The 19th Century Booksellers, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$825.00 + shipping
Description: 80 pp. 2 prefatory woodcut vignettes. 16mo. According to Eckel, the only known copy of the first edition perished in an 1879 fire; the second edition, published in the early 1870s, is known by only a few extant copies, so if one, in one's lifetime, is to have this title represented in one's Dickens' collection, this will be the edition most likely to be found. Green decorative cloth w/ gilt lettering on front board/decorations stamped inblack. 'Vest Pocket Series' red advert eps. 3rd edition (Eckel, p. 159; Gimbel B62; VanderPoel B530[1]). Not in Welsh, though see #2371, MR NIGHTINGALE'S DIARY, also published in this 'Vest Pocket' series
Seller: Tavistock Books, ABAA, Reno, NV, U.S.A.
Dickens, Charles. MR. NIGHTINGALE'S DIARY: A Farce in One Act. , 1877.
Price: US$850.00 + shipping
Description: Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1877. Original terra-cotta cloth decorated in black. First "Collectible" Edition of this play first performed in 1851. We say first "collectible" because there are only four known copies of the original 1851 pamphlet; supposedly a fifth, from which Osgood printed this edition, was destroyed in the Boston fire of 1879. This is a volume in the publisher's "Vest Pocket Series," so named for its diminutive size (a second Dickens "comic burletta" was published in this series the same year -- IS SHE HIS WIFE?). This copy is terra-cotta in color; others are green, without priority. It is a bright, near-fine copy (very slight rubbing at the very tips of the binding) -- quite uncommon in this condition. Eckel pp 64-5. Although not so identified, this copy came from the collection of the major Dickens collector Martin Nason.
Seller: Sumner & Stillman [ABAA], Yarmouth, ME, U.S.A.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Description: or, Something Singular. A Comic Burletta in One Act. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1877. First obtainable printing. Sixteenmo. 80pp. Original brown cloth, decoratively blocked in black and blind, lettered in gilt and black. Off-white endpapers printed in red. A fine, bright copy. Housed in a custom maroon cloth slipcase, black morocco label on spine, gilt-stamped. Apparently no copy exists of the first (1837) edition of this play, Dickens' third published play (first performed 6 March 1837); this is the only published work by Dickens to which this situation applies. (The Gimbel collection has playbills for performances on 13 March and 6 April 1837.) Eckel mentions that the only known copy of this edition was at Osgood for their 1877 reprint and was subsequently destroyed in a fire there in 1879. A census in Eckel finds only three extant copies of the 1873 British reprint. Thus, the Osgood reprint of 1877 is the first obtainable printing of this piece. (The Gimbel collection does have a copy [of the 1873 English], probably the one mentioned by Eckel as lacking the back wrapper; the extensive McQuire collection of American Dickens did not have a copy; Vander Poel had both green and brick cloth variants of the 1877, as did Gimbel.) Eckel, 159ff. Gimbel B62. Carr, VanderPoel Dickens B530 (1 & 2). HBS 66292. $1,250.
Seller: Heritage Book Shop, ABAA, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.