Dickens, Charles — Hablot K. Browne (pseud. "Phiz," illustrator) | "Bleak House," first edition, with an original illustration

Dickens, Charles

Bleak House. London: Chapman and Hall, 1853

8vo (220 x 135 mm). Frontispiece, engraved title and illustrated plates by H.K. Browne (“Phiz”), including an original pencil and wash drawing for the plate “Lady Dedlock in the Wood” tipped in and facing p. 375, signed by Browne ("Phiz") at lower right; small offset to drawing where marked with old paper, not affecting image, a few stray spots and chips. Full green morocco by Riviere, spines with raised bands in six compartments, second and third gilt-lettered, others with overall repeat filigree motif in gilt, top edge gilt, inner dentelles gilt, plum endleaves, original cloth bound in at end; joints starting, minor rubbing. 

First edition in book form, with an original drawing by Phiz.

Known as "Phiz"—a pseudonym he took to match Charles Dickens’s "Boz"— Hablot K. Browne illustrated ten of Dickens’s fifteen novels. Their collaboration started after the death of Robert Seymour, when Browne was brought in to finish the illustrations for The Pickwick Papers (1837), and their professional partnership lasted through A Tale of Two Cities (1859).

The pencil drawing that accompanies the present first edition of Bleak House, Dickens's "State of England" masterpiece, is titled "Lady Dedlock in the Wood". the illustration by Phiz first appeared in the monthly serialization of the work (March 1852 to September 1853), and depicts one of the most pivotal and poignant moments in the narrative: when Esther Summerson learns the true story of her parentage.

And important original drawing, accompanying one of Dickens's most accomplished works.

REFERENCES:

Eckel 64–66; Gimbel A154; Smith I:10

PROVENANCE:

The Nelson Doubleday, Jr. Collection (bookplate to front pastedown; sale, Doyle, 2017, lot 89)