Dickens, Is She His Wife?, [c. late 1860s/early 1870s], first available edition

[DICKENS, CHARLES]

Is She His Wife? Or Something Singular. A Comic Burletta in one Act... First performed at St. James's Theatre, London, Monday, March 6th, 1837. London: [? Bradbury and Evans], [c. late 1860s/early 1870s]

8vo (184 x 125mm.), first available edition (see below), wood-engraved head-piece, original pale pink wrappers, preserved in grey cloth case and quarter calf folding box with red morocco label, tear to backstrip, a few spots of staining to wrappers

VERY RARE, ONE OF ONLY FIVE KNOWN COPIES, THREE OF WHICH ARE IN INSTITUTIONS. The true first edition of this, Dickens's third work for the stage, was only ever known in one copy, belonging to the Boston publisher Osgood, and was destroyed in a fire in December 1879. The present copy is the rare first reprint, which it is thought was issued in the late 1860s or early 1870s. It was was known to Eckel in only three copies. Institutional copies now are recorded at at Yale, Harvard and the New York Public Library. Aside from the present copy, we know of only one other one in private hands.

REFERENCE:

Eckel p.159

PROVENANCE:

? Folsom sale, Anderson Galleries, December 1932; Christie's, 22 November 2002, lot 191