Christmas Carol In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.

DICKENS, Charles

Published by Chapman & Hall, London, 1843

. A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843. Full Description: DICKENS, Charles. LEECH, John, [illustrator]. A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843. First edition, first issue: i.e., "Stave I"; text entirely uncorrected; green-coated endpapers; blue half-title; red and blue title. Foolscap octavo (6 3/8 x 4 1/4 inches; 164 x 103 mm). [viii], [1]-166, [2, publisher's ads]. Four inserted hand-colored steel-engraved plates by and after Leech and four black and white text wood-engravings by W.J. Linton after Leech. Original cinnamon vertically-ribbed cloth. Covers decoratively stamped in blind, and front cover and spine decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Covers a bit soiled. Binding slightly skewed. Inner hinges cracked but firm. Green endpapers rubbed as usual. Some chipping to head and tail of spine. Some toning and soiling to leaves, with a few pages with dampstaining. A few signatures sprung. Frontispiece with a two-inch repaired closed tear along inner margin, just barely touching image. Plate captioned "Scrooge's Third Visitor" frayed along fore-edge and with a one-inch closed tear. Still a good copy. Housed in a red cloth clamshell case with printed paper labels. The green hand-colored endpapers represent Dickens's original choice for his lavish gift book. But the endpapers, which are a chalky, light yellowish green, proved a disappointment to him. On inspection they dusted off and smudged, and so the endpapers were changed before publication date to yellow, which did not require hand work. Probably in the middle of binding, as demand grew faster than the current endpaper stock, it was hurriedly decided to use the green paper, and thereafter it was used indiscriminately with yellow, but discarded again when the initial supply of green became exhausted. Therefore first impression, first issue copies occur in the earliest binding with either yellow or green endpapers, some collectors preferring the green endpapers as the original pre-publication choice. Smith, Dickens, II, 4. HBS 69233. $11,000. Seller Inventory # 69233

Bibliographic Details

Title: Christmas Carol In Prose. Being a Ghost ...
Publisher: Chapman & Hall, London
Publication Date: 1843
Binding: Hardcover
Illustrator: LEECH, John
Edition: 1st Edition