Dickens, The Battle of Life, 1846, first edition, first state of vignette title-page

DICKENS, CHARLES

The Battle of Life. A Love Story. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1846

8vo (160 x 98mm.), FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE OF THE VIGNETTE TITLE-PAGE, 13 illustrations (by Daniel Maclise, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield, and John Leech), rebound in crushed green morocco gilt by Riviere & Son, original red cloth covers and spine bound in, without the advertisements, maroon endpapers, all edges gilt, preserved in green folding case and matching green morocco slipcase

THE VERY RARE FIRST STATE [Todd A, Eckel 1] OF "THE BATTLE OF LIFE", with sub-title "A Love Story" in bold type centred below the illustration on vignette title-page. There were three other states of the vignette title page, all using a scroll design incorporating the sub-title. According to Ruth Grannis, the librarian of the Grolier Club, writing in the catalogue to the exhibition 28 January to 8 March 1913, Dickens did not like "type insertion in its relation to a steel engraving and he quickly abolished the form after a few copies had been printed" (quoted by Eckel, p.122). Until the 1913 Grolier exhibition it was thought all copies possessed the scroll design, and the VAST MAJORITY OF COPIES APPEARING ON THE MARKET SINCE HAVE ALL BEEN ONE OF THE LATER ISSUES.

REFERENCE:

Smith II:8; Eckel p.121, first issue; Gimbel A116 (primary copy); see William B. Todd, "Dickens's Battle of Life: Round Six", The Book Collector, XV (spring 1966), pp.48-54