CARROLL, Lewis; DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge TENNIEL, John, illustrator

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. [And:] Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There

London: Macmillan and Co., 1870. Item #06425

"Presented by Lewis Carroll to the Crofts Sisters"
An Exceptional and Fully Documented Family Association Set of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Inscribed by Lewis Carroll to Mary Dowell Crofts and Florence Crofts

CARROLL, Lewis (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. With forty-two illustrations by John Tenniel. Twenty-third thousand. London: Macmillan and Co., 1870.
[together with:]
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. With fifty illustrations by John Tenniel. Twenty-sixth thousand. London: Macmillan and Co., 1872.

Both volumes inscribed by Lewis Carroll:
Alice:
"Mary Dowell Crofts / from the Author / 1870."
Looking-Glass:
"Florence Crofts / from the Author / March 9, 1873."

Two volumes. Small octavo (7 x 4 7/8 inches; 178 x 98 mm.).

Uniformly bound circa 1960 by Bayntun-Rivière in full crimson crushed morocco, covers elaborately ruled in gilt with decorative cornerpieces, spines with five raised bands, compartments richly tooled in gilt with Carrollian ornament, gilt board edges and turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. The upper cover of Alice tooled with a central White Rabbit vignette and Looking-Glass with the Red Queen. The front turn-ins each stamped "Bound by Bayntun (Rivière), Bath" An exceptionally handsome and harmonious pair.

An outstanding and fully documented Lewis Carroll family association. The two volumes were presented by Carroll to Mary Dowell Crofts and her younger sister Florence Crofts, daughters of J. D. M. Crofts, members of one of the author's best-documented family friendships.

Carroll became acquainted with the Crofts family during the 1860s, visiting them at both Sevenoaks and Hastings, and maintained a warm friendship with the children over a number of years. Mary Crofts was among the young girls photographed by Carroll, while both sisters appear repeatedly in his surviving correspondence.

The inscriptions themselves establish a coherent chronology of Carroll's continuing relationship with the family. Mary received Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1870, while Florence received Through the Looking-Glass on 9 March 1873, only weeks before Carroll wrote again to Mary, demonstrating that the friendship remained active during precisely the period in which the books were presented.

The identification is further strengthened by Mary's inscription, which reads "Mary Dowell Crofts." The use of her maternal family name, Dowell, exactly accords with independent genealogical records, eliminating any uncertainty regarding the recipient's identity.

A letter written by Carroll to Mary Crofts on 12 April 1873, preserved among his correspondence, confirms that he remained in close contact with the sisters immediately following the presentation of Looking-Glass. Few presentation copies permit such precise reconstruction of the relationship between author and recipient.

Unlike many surviving Carroll presentation copies, whose recipients remain obscure, the Crofts sisters occupy a clearly documented place within Carroll's social world. Their relationship with him is supported not only by inscriptions but by surviving correspondence, recorded visits, family history, and Carroll's own photographic work, making this one of the comparatively few presentation sets whose provenance can be reconstructed in remarkable detail.

The present volumes therefore represent far more than simply two books signed by Lewis Carroll. They preserve an intimate record of one of the personal friendships that informed his private life during the years in which the Alice books were transforming children's literature.

This remarkable pair represents: two presentation copies given by Lewis Carroll to sisters within the same family;
recipients who are securely identified through genealogy and Carroll's correspondence; gifts made during the formative years of the Alice books (1870–1873); a documented relationship extending beyond the inscriptions through visits, letters, and Carroll's photographic portraits; one of the comparatively few surviving Carroll association sets in which author, recipients, chronology, and historical documentation all coincide.

Presentation copies of the Alice books have always occupied the highest tier of Carroll collecting. Family presentation sets with this degree of documentation are exceptionally uncommon and belong among the most desirable association copies to survive.

Williams, Madan & Green 46d & 84a.

Price: $24,500.00