DICKENS | Oliver Twist, 1838, first edition

CHARLES DICKENS

Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy's Progress by "Boz". London: Richard Bentley, 1838

8vo (223 x 126mm.), FIRST EDITION, 3 volumes, etched frontispieces and 21 other plates by George Cruikshank, FIRST ISSUE with the 'Fireside' plate in volume 3, half-titles in volumes 1 and 2 (as called for), 4pp. publisher's advertisements at end volume 1 and 2pp. at front volume 3, original publisher's brown fine ribbed cloth, large central arabesque in blind on covers, spines lettered in gilt (without imprint), pale yellow endpapers, collector's slipcase, some plates slightly spotted and offset, those in volume 3 more heavily, pp. 131-134 and plate 5 in volume 1 loose, corners bumped and edges lightly rubbed,spines faded, volume 2 with small ink mark, bumped at head and foot

Eckel notes that copies without the imprint at the foot of the spines "must have been of the very earliest form of the binding". This copy also includes the 'Fireside' plate in volume 3.

LITERATURE:

Smith I: 4; Eckel pp. 59-62; cf. Sadleir 696; Carter Binding Variants pp. 107-108.

PROVENANCE:

Courtenay F. Wilson, bookplates