Beschreibung:

DICKENS, Charles. A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being A Ghost Story of Christmas . Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1844.
DICKENS, Charles. A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being A Ghost Story of Christmas . Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1844. 12 o (157 x 100 mm). Four hand-colored lithographic plates, four wood-engraved plates after John Leech (lightly browned and one or two pale stains). (Lightly browned, some spotting and staining, a few creases.) Original purple-black cloth, covers decorated in blind, spine gilt (spine lightly faded to brown, extremities just touched); red morocco pull-off box. Provenance : Carl Adolph Buchheim (autograph note from Dickens tipped in); Comte Alain de Suzannet (bookplate; his sale Sotheby's London, 22 November 1971, lot 79); Kenyon Starling (bookplate). FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. "A very pretty edition of the 'Carol' was published in 1844 by Carey & Hart, of Philadelphia. It is almost an exact reproduction of the original, except that the covers are black instead of brown cloth. The title on the back is a facsimile of the original, and the title-page is also printed in red and blue. The beautiful colored pictures by Leech in the original have been faithfully reproduced by lithography, and the entire book compares favorably with the original edition" Edgar & Vail p. 21; Wilkins, p. 38; Yale/Gimbel A80. [ Tipped-in :] DICKENS. Autograph note signed in text ("Mr. Charles Dickens"), to Mr. Buchheim, Saturday 2 November, 1867. One page (97 x 121 mm) "Office of All the Year Round" letterhead, tipped-in to front free endpaper . Dickens presents "his compliments to Mr. Buchheim, and begs to give him free permission to make the extract he desires to introduce into his book on German prose composition." Referring to Buchheim's Materials for German Prose Composition; or, Selections from Modern English Writers with Grammatical Notes, etc. London: Bell & Daldy, 1868, in which a piece entitled The Fire of London by Charles Dickens appears on p.22.