Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; [together with:] Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. by CARROLL, Lewis - 1866 & 1872

London: Macmillan and Co.,, 1866 & 1872. 2 works, octavo (179 x 120 mm). Finely bound by W. Root & Son in dark blue crushed morocco, titles and elaborate decoration to spines gilt, raised bands, panelled design to boards with cornerpieces gilt and gilt vignette centrepieces, inner dentelles gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. With the original cloth bound in at rear. Housed in a red cloth flat-back box by the Chelsea Bindery. Frontispieces and 90 illustrations by John Tenniel. Bookplate to front pastedowns, mild partial toning to endpapers, some occasional mild foxing. An excellent set. Handsomely bound first published editions of both Alice in Wonderland books. Adventures in Wonderland is the first published edition, the second overall: the book was originally printed in Oxford at the Clarendon Press in June 1865, but was suppressed when Carroll heard that the book's illustrator was dissatisfied with the quality of the printing. He recalled the few pre-publication copies he had sent out to his friends and donated them to hospitals, where most perished. Only 23 of those original "1865 Alices" are now extant, mostly in institutional holdings, thus creating one of the most famous black tulips of book collecting. The book was entirely reset by Richard Clay for the present authorized Macmillan edition, the earliest edition that can be realistically obtained. Although dated 1866, the edition was in fact ready by November 1865, in time for the Christmas market, and was published in a print run of 4,000 copies. The copy of Through the Looking-Glass is the first edition; like its predecessor, it was published for the Christmas market and bears the following year's date in its imprint. It was actually published in December 1871, in an edition of 9,000 copies. Williams, Madan, Green and Crutch 46; Printing and the Mind of Man 354.