Table

The scarcest of the first edition variants
of Dickens's most sought-after work at
an exceptional price ($13,000)!

Guarantee: If you can find a comparable copy of this

book at a better price I will gladly take this book back

and refund your money. The closest I have found

to my copy is on abebooks.com, priced at over $15,790 (more if the dollar continues to fall, since it is priced in

sterling). The copy offered here is identical in all issue

points, but is being offered for nearly $3,000 less!

DICKENS, CHARLES A Christmas Carol , Chapman and Hall, 1843
(First state cover, "STAVE I", yellow endpapers)

This is a true first edition of Charles Dickens's most sought-after novel. It is not
a facsimile or in any other way ungenuine, and carries a full money-back guarantee.

I am not selling this book for a profit; I am selling it because my interests and priorities
as a collector have changed, and this book - once the cornerstone of my 19th century
collection - no longer fits in with my present aims. *The purchaser of this book will also
receive the receipt I obtained from a leading UK dealer when I purchased it (at a discount
price as part of a multiple order purchase) six years ago for a significantly higher
price than I am asking now.*

The printing history of this book is complex, mainly because there was a pre-publication
trial printing, which differed from the actual printing for publication. This is one of the first
copies that rolled off the press for actual publication, identifiable by the following issue points:

On the front board of the cover the "D" of "Dickens" is perfectly formed, and there is a
1.4 cm. distance between the blind-stamped border and the gilt on the cover. The bar of the
"D" broke on the printing block as the first edition was being printed, pushing the whole block
slightly out of alignment, and later copies have the broken letter and the border slightly
askew.

The first part of the text is headed "STAVE I". The other staves are headed with the
numerals spelled as words, and the "I" was changed to "ONE" in later copies.

The year of publication is given as MDCCCXLIII (i.e., 1843). The pre-publication trial
issue was dated 1844.

The endpapers are pale yellow. The trial issue had green endpapers.

The half-title is blue. In the trial issue it was green.

The title-page is blue and red. In the trial issue it was green and red.
For these differences between the trial issue and the first issue for publication see, e.g.,
Richard Gimbel, The Earliest State of the First Issue of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol,
which states:
"...in examining printed copies prior to publication, Dickens was disappointed with the
appearance of the green titles, which turned drab, and the hand-colored green endpapers,
which dusted off and smudged, and had the title page changed to red and blue, the half title
to blue, the date on the title page changed from 1844 to 1843, and the endpapers changed to
yellow, which did not require hand work. Dickens's changes were completed by December
17 and all presentation copies of that date (two days prior to publication) have the above
changes."
However, recent scholarship has shown that, despite Dickens's new instructions, the
printers used up the remaining green endpapers before moving on to the yellow ones, and
there are quite a few "mixed state" copies, which combine some of the features of the pre-
trial issue with some of the features given in Dickens's final instructions to the printers.

This copy, usually referred to these days as "first issue, second state" has all the features
given in Dickens's final instructions to the printers, and is the rarest of all the early issues.

This book is in its original cloth binding with gilt titles on the spine and cover, and all
edges gilt. There are four hand-coloured illustrations by Leech.

This is the first and most famous of the Christmas Books. All of them were issued in a
delicate cloth binding and most either fell to pieces with time or were rebound. Copies in the
original cloth are scarce. Copies in this kind of condition are expensive and hard to come by.
The hand-colored engravings by John Leech are a distinctive feature of the book, along with
the timeless appeal of the story.

CONDITION

The condition of the book itself is very good indeed. There is a small,
professional - and almost invisible - repair to the head of the spine. No other repair or
restoration work has been carried out. The boards are very clean, retaining some of the
original salmon colour (which generally fades to brown), the spine is in beautiful condition (no
rubbing of the spine ends), and there is extremely slight rubbing of corners (only the lower
rear corner is clearly worn through). Note that, unlike the other Christmas books, which
came out in a red binding, A Christmas Carol was issued in a light brown - almost
salmon-coloured - cover (see the scan below). The book is very tight in its binding (very, very
slightly cocked), and the contents are bright and clean, with a bit of light spotting (see
scans, below). There is a lightly-inked 1843 inscription on the half-title. Altogether this is a
bright, tight copy, and comes complete with a custom-made case.
The scans are high-resolution and very detailed. Please study them carefully; most on-
line sellers do not give you this kind of opportunity to see the true quality of the item you are
buying/bidding on.

The above scans show very clearly that the cover is in almost
perfect condition. The following scans show the frontispiece and
title-page, the page with the "STAVE I" first issue point and the hand-
coloured illustrations. Rest assured that the scanner picks up any
little flaw and actually makes it look worse than it really is! In reality,
the contents of the book appear cleaner and brighter than they do
in the scans.

This page appears to have been repaired at some stage. It is hard to see how that crease (and/or tear?) in the bottom
left corner could have got there unless the page had at some stage been separated. However, an image of the reverse
of the gutter shows no signs of any repair:

Here is a slightly enlarged image of the reverse of the crease/tear at the bottom:

My best guess is that it may well have been repaired, but the repair has been done so professionally
that one cannot really see it. That would square with the very high quality repair work that has
been done on the top of the spine of the cover.

This page too appears to have been repaired at some stage?). The reverse of the page shows what may be a repair
at the bottom, but even under high magnification it just looks as though the last couple of inches or so of the paper
near the spine have been scuffed. If it is a repair it is a very good one:

As I say, under magnification that slightly different-coloured strip at the bottom shows up as what appears to
be a scuffing of the surface of the paper. However, it may well be a very skillful repair.

Because of the way they were bound, the illustration pages are more prone to work their way loose
than the other pages. Apart from the slight question mark over whether these two illustration pages
have been repaired at some stage, there are no signs of damage or repair to any of the other pages.

POSTAL CHARGES

This book will be sent insured to its full value by airmail, with an online tracking
service, for a maximum cost of $100 (anything in excess of that will be paid
by the seller).

If you want to see further scans, or there is anything else you want to know, see the
'About Me' page or ask me.

CONDITIONS OF SALE

All items are sold on approval, and may be returned to me for any reason for a
full and unconditional refund. If the book has been wrongly described, the refund will
include full postage costs. In this case, I offer a further guarantee (see top of page).

The scarcest of the first edition variants of Dickens's most sought-after work at an exceptional price ($13,000)!