Bellmans

3 December | Printed Books, Maps & Manuscripts

12/3/25

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DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).
DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).

DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). A Christmas Carol, London, 1843, 8vo, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, original brown decorated cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel).

Go to Bidding
Starting bid£4,000
Estimate £5,000 - £8,000
Absentee deadlineDec 3, 2025, 5:00:00 PM

DICKENS, Charles (1812-70).  A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843. 8vo (164 x 102mm). Half title, title printed in red and blue within a blue rule border and a blue woodcut illustration of a sprig of holly, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by John Leech, 4 wood-engraved illustrations in the text by W. J. Linton after John Leech, 2-pages of publisher's advertisements at the end (some light staining mainly at the margin of the title, light spot in the margin of the title, very small stain on p.25, a few faint spots). Original brown vertically-ribbed cloth, the title and author's name within a wreath of holly and ivy stamped in gold on the upper cover with a blind-stamped border of holly and ivy, spine decorated in gilt, gilt edges, pale green endpapers (old repair at the head of the spine, some light rubbing to the joints, two patches of staining to the lower cover, some other light staining). Provenance: "Grundy, Gorse Bank" (old signature on the front free endpaper opposite the half title). FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, with "Stave I" as the first chapter heading, the date on the title page in Roman numerals, an unbroken "D" in "Dickens" on the front cover, 15mm. distance between the gilt-stamped wreath on the upper and the blind-stamped border (Todd's first issue requirement), and the scarce pale green endpapers. Unlike other Dickens' novels, A Christmas Carol was not initially published in periodical form and so, to the pedant and the purist, this is the true first appearance of the text. Boxall (ed.) 1001 Books p.112: "... The story is darkly comic and tinged with pathos, making the customary Dickensian appeal to the transforming power of sentiment ... Ultimately, though, it is the masterful storytelling that will ensure A Christmas Carol's popularity - it would be a stony heart indeed that did not warm to its charms"; Eckel The First Editions of the Writings of Charles Dickens (1913) p.110: "... the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language ..."; Gimbel [Podeschi] Dickens and Dickensiana: A Catalogue of the Richard Gimbel Collection (1980) A80; Smith Charles Dickens in the Original Cloth; A Bibliographical Record (1982) II.4; Muir English Children's Books 1600-1900 (1954) p.125; Sadleir XIX Century Fiction (1969) 684. See also William B. Todd's article "Dickens's Christmas Carol" in The Book Collector (Winter issue, 1961) for a detailed discussion of issue points relating to the binding in particular. RARE.

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