Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$497.71 + shipping
Description: First Edition in book form, volume one only although this contains two early pieces by Charles Dickens as Boz, The Tuggs's At Ramsgate and A Little Talk about Spring and The Sweeps. Both stories were collected in Sketches by Boz published later in the same year. Handsomely bound in half leather with marble papercovered boards. The boards do show a little surface wear with light loss of the leather to the corners. There is slight cracking to the front outer hinge although the front board is still pretty secure and the binding is generally in good condition. There is some pencil notation to one of the prelims and a beautifully written inscription at the top of the title page. The rest of the pages are toned with heavy foxing in places, although generally in a good clean condition, with fourteen illustrations from various artists including R. Seymour. pp. viii 384. Overall a handsome copy.nbsp;
Seller: St Marys Books And Prints, Stamford, United Kingdom
Price: US$1122.42 + shipping
Description: First edition in book form, first issue (1836 on title page), contains two pieces by Dickens (as Boz) - "The Tuggs's at Ramsgate" and "A Little Talk About Spring and the Sweeps". Both were collected in Sketches by Boz published later in the same year. Although the first volume of The Library of Fiction was followed by a second volume (published in 1837), all of Dickens's contributions were present in the first volume. Eckel, pp. 137-39; Gimbel E122. Octavo. Original dark green diced cloth, spine lettered in gilt. 14 plates by Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), R. Seymour, R. W. Buss and others. book label of Anne and F. G. Renier to front pastedown. Recased. Hinges split, some spotting and browning to contents. A very good copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$1603.45 + shipping
Description: First editions in book form, the first volume containing two early pieces by Dickens (as Boz) - "The Tuggs's at Ramsgate" and "A Little Talk About Spring and the Sweeps". Both were collected in Sketches by Boz published later in the same year. The second volume, completing the publication, does not contain any work by Dickens, but contains illustrations by his illustrators Phiz, Seymour, and Buss. Eckel, pp. 137-39; Gimbel E122. 2 volumes, octavo. Original dark green diced cloth (secondary bindings - the primary binding in black and blue cloth respectively), rebacked with original spines laid down, spines lettered in gilt. Housed in red cloth chemises within red morocco bookform box, spines lettered in gilt. 28 plates by Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), R. Seymour, R. W. Buss and others. Refurbished with expert repair to bindings and hinges, some spotting and browning. Very good copies.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$1763.80 + shipping
Description: FIRST EDITION, 1st issue. 2 vols. Half titles, plates by Robert Seymour, Buss, &c. Uncut in later 19thC full crushed red morocco by Grieve of Edinburgh, gilt spines, borders & dentelles, elaborate gilt cornerpieces. Orig. blue cloth spinestrips laid on to leading pastedowns. t.e.g. v sl. rubbing to extremities, but overall a v.g. handsome copy. Volume I titlepage dated 1836. These volumes represent all that was published of this short-lived monthly periodical. It contained two contributions by Dickens, both in Volume I: The Tuggs's at Ramsgate, the first tale in the volume commencing on page 1, and A Little Talk about Spring and the Sweeps, (later published as The First of May) which starts on page 113. The second contribution also appeared in the Second Series of Sketches by Boz, but The Tuggs's at Ramsgate did not, although it was re-issued in the parts publication. Among the other contributor are the Banim Brothers, Miss Mitford, G.P.R. James, Edward Mayhew, the Countess of Blessington, Douglas Jerrold, W.H. Wills (later to be Dickens's assistant editor), and James Ollier.
Seller: Jarndyce, The 19th Century Booksellers, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$1763.80 + shipping
Description: FIRST EDITION, 1st issue. 2 vols. Plates by Seymour. Handsomely bound in later full scarlet morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, gilt spines, ruled borders & dentelles. t.e.g. v.g. With the Volume I titlepage dated 1836. All that was published of this short-lived monthly periodical. Volume I contains both of Dickens's contributions, attributed in the contents leaf to 'Boz': The Tuggs's at Ramsgate and A Little Talk about Spring and the Sweeps. Among the other contributor are the Banim Brothers, Miss Mitford, G.P.R. James, Edward Mayhew, the Countess of Blessington, Douglas Jerrold, W.H. Wills (later to be Dickens's assistant editor), and James Ollier.
Seller: Jarndyce, The 19th Century Booksellers, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition, First Issue Set of The Library of Fiction, With Two Sketches by "Boz" and Plates by Seymour and Buss [DICKENS, Charles, contributor]. The Library of Fiction, or Family Story-Teller; Consisting of Original Tales, Essays, and Sketches of Character. With Fourteen Illustrations. Vol. I. [II.] London: Chapman and Hall, 1836-1837. First edition in book form, first issue, with title-page to Vol. I dated 1836. Two octavo volumes (8 1/8 x 5 1/8 inches; 206 x 130 mm.). [iii-v]vi[vii]viii, [1]2-384; [vi], 350. Twenty-eight engraved plates by various artists including Robert Seymour and Robert William Buss. Publisher's dark green bead-grain cloth over boards, covers with arabesque design stamped in blind, spines lettered in gilt, all edges uncut, coated yellow end-papers. Covers of volume I with some damp-staining, expertly rebacked with original spine laid down; covers of volume II with joints expertly repaired and end-papers renewed with matching paper. With the bookplate of Eric S. Quayle on front paste-down of volume I. Tipped in at the end is a mid-twentieth century typed booksellers description (G.F. Sims of Hurst, Reading, England) of the book. The plates and text quite clean and relatively free from the usual foxing. An excellent set of the scarce first issue, from the library of the celebrated collector and bibliographer, Eric Quayle. Housed in an early twentieth century olive green morocco over green cloth board slipcase with central divider. Two spines with five raised bands, elaborately tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments. "Dickens' first article in the first number of The Library of Fiction, "The Tuggses at Ramsgate" (Vol. I, pp. 1-18) was published on the selfsame day as the first number of the Pickwick Papers: 31 March 1836. Like Pickwick, the story is set partly in and partly outside London, and involves common London types: the fatuous nouveau riche Tuggses, the mercenary Waterses, and various impertinent and whimsical carriage drivers and land." (Philip V. Allingham, Victorian Web). "Dickens' other article in the Library of Fiction, "A Little Talk About Spring and Sweeps," (Vol. I, pp. 113-119) was first published in May 1836. It sets out to depict the traditional spring celebrations in the streets that Boz remembers so well from his childhood. These festivities, in the shape of spontaneous street performances and merry dances of young sweeps, have by now deteriorated into a fake and shabby charade that has nothing authentic about it. Boz laments the fact that nowadays the dancers are no longer real child sweeps, but actors who produce a contrived and ungainly performance. Boz's description of the celebrations now and in the past is interrupted by a lengthy digression into the biographies and careers of certain young chimney sweeps, the account of whose mysterious original introduces an aura of imaginative speculation into the sketch." (Dickens and the Imagined Child). Rare in the original cloth, neither Sadleir nor Wolff had examples in the cloth. Contains two early pieces by Dickens in Volume I, both attributed to "Boz" and printed in the first and second series, respectively, of Sketches by Boz: "The Tuggs's at Ramsgate," pages 1-18, with two plates engraved by Landells after Robert Seymour, the first illustrator of Pickwick; and "A Little Talk About Spring and Sweeps," pages 113-119, with one plate by J. Jackson after R.W. Buss, Pickwick's second illustrator. "The peculiar purpose of the âLibrary of Fiction,' is to put is readers in possession, at a moderate price, of a series of Original Tales and Sketches, all carefully selected from among a host of candidates; and many of them written by Authors of the very loftiest pretensions in the field of imaginative composition" (publisher's "Address," Volume I). Originally issued in fourteen monthly parts from April 1836-May 1837, with two additional parts issued in June and July, 1837. Eckel, pp. 137-9. Gimbel E122.
Seller: David Brass Rare Books, Inc., Calabasas, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2565.52 + shipping
Description: First edition of the young Dickens' pseudonymous political pamphlet defending the right of the poor man to a free Sabbath, in opposition to a proposed law (put forward by Andrew Agnew, 7th Baronet Agnew of Lochnaw) prohibiting all work and all recreation on a Sunday. This copy differs to the description in Eckel in that there is no "price two shillings" note on the front cover; it matches the other points which distinguish it from the two known facsimiles: the words "Sunday Under Three Heads" beginning page 35, and the spelling "hair" rather than "air" on page 7, line 15. Provenance: Richard Manney, book-label to chemise, sale of his library at Sotheby's New York, 11 October 1991, lot 77; the Lawrence Drizen collection of Charles Dickens, Sotheby's, 24 September 2019, lot 4. Eckel p. 102; Gimbel B30. Small octavo. Original brown wrappers printed in black, rebacked. Housed in a blue cloth chemise within blue morocco slipcase, spine lettered in gilt. With 3 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne, who also designed the heads on the front cover and title page. Further light repairs to wrappers, contents with light creasing, slight stain to top right corner throughout. A very good copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom