THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB by DICKENS, Charles - 1837

London: Chapman and Hall. 1837. 1st edition. hb. Thick 8vo, pp. xiv, 609. Recent rebind in full brown leather with gilt rules to spine and red morocco spine label. A most handsome presentation. . All 43 plates are present, as described in Smith, "Charles Dickens in the Original Cloth", although five of the plates are placed one page earlier than called for, and one plate is placed ten pages later. Seven of the plates are by Seymour, two by Buss, and the remainder by Phiz. Vignette title page plate shows "S. Veller" and "Phiz fecit". As is always the case with a bound first edition of this title, each of the plates is a "mixed bag" of first state, first plate, second plate etc. varieties of the plates. Our copy contains at least 33 "matches" to the status of plates found in most first edition copies, as stipulated by Smith; but it also contains 10 plates where the points are different, the majority of the differences suggesting a first plate, first state status. See also Eckel, "Bibliography of the Original Writings of Charles Dickens; Fitzgerald, "The History of Pickwick"; Hatton and Cleaver, "Bibliography of the Periodical Works of Charles Dickens"; Clendening, "A Handbook to Pickwick Papers". The contents of our copy show foxing, and there are a few very small (less than one inch) closed tears to the margins. The binding is tight and the contents are untrimmed. Overall, a very good copy with a highly desirable number of first state "points". .