Item #05123 Sketches by Boz. COSWAY-STYLE BINDING, binders BAYNTUN-RIVIÈRE, Charles DICKENS.
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz

Sketches by Boz

London: Chapman and Hall, 1839. Item #05123

The First Complete Edition of 'Sketches by Boz'
Extra-Illustrated by the Insertion of a Hand-Colored Duplicate Suite of the Plates
In A Fine Bayntun (Rivière) Cosway-Style Binding

[COSWAY-STYLE BINDING]. BAYNTUN-RIVIÈRE, binders. DICKENS, Charles. Sketches by Boz Illustrative of every-day life and every-day people. With forty illustrations by George Cruikshank. New Edition, Complete. London: Chapman and Hall, 1839.

First book form edition of the first and second series complete in one volume with Chapman and Hall revised texts and re-engraved plates used in their Parts issue.

Octavo (8 1/8 x 5 1/4 inches; 208 x 133 mm.). [iii-vii]viii, [1-3]4-526. Forty inserted steel engravings. Extra-illustrated by the insertion of a duplicate suite of the original engravings expertly hand-colored.

Bound by Bayntun (Rivière) Bath ca. 1955 (stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-in) in full wine red crushed levant morocco over beveled boards. Covers triple-ruled in gilt, front cover with an elaborate central gilt floral and thistle design surrounding a fine hand-painted portrait miniature (2 3/4 x 2 inches; 70 x 51 mm.) of a young Charles Dickens set under glass. Spine with five raised bands elaborately tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments. Decorative gilt board-edges, wide elaborate gilt turn-ins, marbled liners and endleaves, all edges gilt. Housed in the original felt-lined red cloth slipcase, spine with two black morocco labels lettered in gilt.

A total of forty plates were drawn and etched by George Cruikshank for this octavo edition, of which twenty-seven are the original designs as they appeared in the First and Second Series of the Sketches published in volume form, 1836-37; these, however, were enlarged in size to match an additional thirteen etchings.

"This collection of short pieces contains the earliest of Dickens's work. It is undoubtedly the most valuable from the antiquarian's point of view, containing references and descriptions of life in the 30's to be found nowhere else" (Hayward, The Dickens Encyclopedia, p. 141).

"When Chapman and Hall obtained the copyright of Sketches in 1837, they published all of them in twenty monthly parts from November 1837 through June 1839. Cruikshank designed a cover, enlarged the plates (except 'The Free and Easy' which was discarded), and created 13 new illustrations for these monthly parts. In may 1839, Chapman and Hall published these parts complete in one volume with all 40 of Cruikshank's illustrations" (Smith, p. 16).

Smith I: 2, note 4; Gimbel A7; Hatton and Cleaver, cf. pp. 91-128.

Price: $9,500.00