Dickens, Charles. Pickwick Papers (Original Parts 20 in 19). Chapman & Hall, London, 1836.

Price: US$25000.00 + shipping

Condition: Fine

Description: First Editions, First Printings in the ORIGINAL MONTHLY PARTS SIGNED by Charles Dickens on a laid in check. A superb set in the publisher's green pictorial wrappers with minor wear to the spines and edges. These ORIGINAL wrappers include 27 additional plates with the rare suppressed plates by R. W. Buss in part 3. A total of 70 plates present, with the 27 additions showing different versions of the original 43, some plates being variants not mentioned in Hatton and Cleaver. "These three artists (Seymour, Buss, "Phiz") etched, in all, 92 plates for the completed work; of which 43 are the "Originals" as they appeared in the first issue of the monthly parts, 4 are "Replacements," 2 are "Substitutes," and 24 are "Duplicates" of the originals: total 73. The remaining 19 are not dealt with in this bibliography" (Hatton and Cleaver pp 17). Fourteen of the front wrappers and twelve of the back wrappers are first issue (the wrappers, like the plates, can be found in a number of variants). The text has issue points in twelve of the nineteen books, in this set two of the parts show first issue text and ten show later issue text. The Pickwick advertiser is present and complete in eleven of the sixteen parts which call for it. The set also retains five of the seven "addresses" that were issued in the course of publication. Back ads present are Parts IX, one ad;, part X, one ad; Part XIII, two ads; Part XIV, one ad; Part XV, seven ads; Part XVII, three ads; Part XVIII, four ads; and Part XIX-XX, four ads. This shows twenty-three of the thirty-four ads called for in Hatton and Cleaver. Not complete as for the advertisements, but still with many more ads here than most copies in recent years. An overall excellent set documenting the progression and development of the illustrated plates and their variations housed in a custom clamshell slipcase for preservation SIGNED by the author.

Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.