David Copperfield, In Original Parts, Most With Ownership Signatures Of Edmund Waterton, Son Of Charles Waterton The Naturalist, And With Signed Letter To Richard Owen, The Naturalist by Dickens, Charles - 1849

London: Bradbury And Evans 1849 1850, 1849. 1st Edition . Soft cover. Very Good. 20 Parts In 19 Issues. Fourteen Of The 19 Parts Bear The Ownership Signature Of Edmund Waterton, Son Of The Naturalist Charles Waterton, Whose "Essays On Natural History" Were Avidly Read By Dickens, Who Named Waterton As The Source Of Dickens' Raven In Bleak House. Part Iii, The First Part Which Has Edmund Waterton's Name At Top, Also Has An Excised Portion To The Right, At The Top Right Of The Front Cover, With A Few Traces Of Handwriting Beneath The Excision; I Presume This Was A Presentation, Or A Prior Ownership Signature. Also With A Loose Als From Dickens To The Naturalist Richard Owen, July 12, 1865 "Studying The Gorilla Last Night For The Twentieth Time..."; Owen's "Memoir On The Gorilla" Had Just Been Published About June 2. Owen Himself Was A "Slight" Model For The Taxidermist In Our Mutual Friend (1864-5), And Had Already Been A Friend Of Dickens For Decades, After Owen And His Wife Read Dickens In The Late 1830'S; Dickens Occasionally Published His Articles. See "The Nonesuch Dickens", V. 3, P. 431. First Issues With All Of The Hundreds Of Hatton And Cleaver Points In 14 Of 19 Issues, Aside From Some With Reversed Plates And Some Lacking The Tissue Guards Between The Plates; The Other Five Issues Have Minor Deviations: Part Iii Lacks The Ads On Pp 9-12; Part Iv Has A Fraudulent (Altered) Front Cover Attached, But A Genuine First Issue Cover Is Supplied, Loosely; Part Viii Is Missing Ads On Pp 5-8, On P. 3 "Lile" Has Been Corrected To "Life", The Ladies Companion And Doyle Ads Are Each 2Pp Instead Of 1 (As Often Found), The Lett's Diaries Folding Sheet Is Lacking But 5 Lett's Specimens Are Bound In; Parts Xix/Xx Are Lacking 1 Leaf Of The Sewell's Ad, And The Dedication Begins "Affectionately Inscribed" Before "To...". All Issues With Some Wear, Spines Show Heavy Wear, Fraying And Chipping To First Few Volumes, Other Volumes Have Mostly Small Losses, Ii Is Split Entirely Between Pp 48-49, V Has Rear Wrapper Partly Detached, Vi Has Both Covers Detached, Vi And Vii Have Another Handwritten Name, Vii Has A Stamped Name Also And Has A 1/2" X 1/4" V-Chip To The Rear Panel, Ix Has Last Page Of Ads Reversed Recto/Verso, Xix/Xx Has Spine Split But Binding Intact. All Enclosed In A Late Nineteenth Century Slipcase And Morocco And Cloth Box, This Set Apparently Preserved Together At That Time.