Dickens, Charles [with Signed Check laid in]. The Works of Charles Dickens [Signed] [Large Paper edition, 32 volumes, leather. Houghton Mifflin and Co. Boston. Riverside Press, 1894.

Price: US$3750.00 + shipping

Condition: Very Good

Description: The Writings of Charles Dickens Large-Paper Edition With critical and bibliographical introductions and notes by Edwin Percy Whipple and others. Illustrated with steel portraits and engravings from the original designs by Browne, Cruikshank, Leech and others. Boston and New York. Houghton, Mifflin and Co. Riverside Press. 1894. A limited edition of 500 copies, of which this is number 271. In Thirty-Two volumes Hardcover. Bound in handsome red leather (crushed levant) with raised cords, gold lettering and decorations. Marbled paper boards and endpapers. Leather corners. Top edge gilt. About 400 page per volume. Many volumes have 3 plates at the front (higher numbers have only two), one of which is beautifully hand colored. Illustrated throughout with the original illustrations, with tissue guards. The set is: The Pickwick Papers (2 volumes); Sketches by Boz; Oliver Twist; Nicholas Nickleby (2 volumes); Old Curiosity Shop; Barnaby Rudge (2 volumes); Martin Chuzzlewit (2 volumes); Dombey and Son (2 volumes); David Copperfield (2 volumes); Bleak House (2 volumes); Little Dorrit (2 volumes); A Tale of Two Cities; Our Mutual Friend (2 volumes); Christmas Books (2 volumes); Hard Times; Uncommercial Traveller; Plays, Poems, Miscellanies; A Child’s History of England; Life, Letters, Speeched (2 volumes); The Dickens Dictionary. 2 volumes have small chips (nickel sized) on the crown of the spine where a piece of the leather is missing, and 4 others are cracked there, and the leather needs repair. 2 volumes have front cover detached (Volume 1 & the Christmas Books volume). Both covers are present. No other significant damage, but there is some wear to hinges and darkening to the leather corners throughout. A handsome set on 2 full shelves, notwithstanding the small chips mentioned above. Laid in at the front of the first volume, there is a check filled and signed by Dickens. Drawn on the bank of Messers Coutts & Compy. to ‘messrs Dawson, Newman & Co.’ in the amount of Thirty one pounds, six shillings and fourpence. Signed by Dickens and vigorously underlined, as was his style. Dated ‘Second February, 1866.’ The check is on blue paper, embossed with a ‘One Penny’ crowned stamp. It is struck through with blue ink. Mounted edgeways in white paper such that both sides are visible. Measures 7.5 x 3.75 inches. Endpaper and three blanks are detached on this volume. The page with the check is the first page attached. All the missing pages and board are here, however. Please email with questions or to request photos. Shipping will be more than the default settings, because it's 32 volumes.

Seller: Riverby Books, Fredericksburg, VA, U.S.A.