Beschreibung:

DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge ('Lewis Carroll'). The Hunting of the Snark . London: R. Clay, Sons, and Taylor for Macmillan and Co., 1876. 4° (184 x 124mm). 9 illustrations after Henry Holiday Original red cloth, gilt-stamped, spine gilt lettered, gilt edges, Burn & Co. binder's ticket at rear inside cover (gilt and spine ends lightly rubbed), red quarter morocco slipcase and chemise. Provenance : Sarah Caroline 'Sally' Sinclair (1868-1956, presentation inscription) -- Mrs T.A. Parker (sale, Sotheby's London, 19 April 1971, lot 313) -- sale, Swann Galleries, 29 April 1992, lot 67 -- Robert E. Hill (bookplate in chemise). FIRST EDITION, ONE OF 100 COPIES BOUND IN RED CLOTH FOR PRESENTATION, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR in purple ink to one of his child-friends: 'Sally Sinclair from the Author. March 1879'. 'Sally' Sinclair inspired an acrostic poem titled 'Love Among the Roses' (manuscript, Rosenbach, dated 3 January 1878), which became one of two forgeries produced by Buxton Forman's son after Carroll's death. Carroll sent Sally's mother Maria a letter dated 24 April 1878 with directions to A.B. Frost's studio in Haverstock Hill suggesting that Frost could draw Sally as Cupid and that Carroll could give her a photograph of the drawing. In his Diaries (1953) Carroll describes Sally as 'quite beautiful by daylight as gaslight' (p.369); and in a letter to Frost (7 May 1878) gave him instructions for this Cupid drawing and 'a study from life (but not Cupid) that I may keep as a specimen of your power in drawing a beautiful figure ... a girl of about 12 is my ideal of beauty of form' (cf. Letters p.308). Williams, Madan, Green and Crutch 115.