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DICKENS, Charles

The Village Coquettes: A Comic Opera

The Village Coquettes: A Comic Opera

London: Richard Bentley, 1836

Illustrated by

Regular price £325.00
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DICKENS, Charles.  The Village Coquettes: A Comic Opera.  In two acts.  London: Richard Bentley, 1836.  Octavo (225 x 136mm).  First edition, not marked as facsimile to reverse of title page and with the width of "Richard Bentley" on title page as on the original first (not reduced to 2-3/8 inches as in the later facsimile reprints).

Bound in nineteenth-century full calf gilt in armorial binding, gilt titles and date of 1836 to spine, all edges gilt, hand-marbled endpapers, further decorative motifs and ruling on the turnins, the upper cover with the monogram initials C. H. T. W. in gilt (unidentified stamp, but found in association with the same bookplate in a copy of Hall's Union of the two noble and illustrate famelies of Lancastre [and] Yorke, 1548), and 19th-century coloured armorial bookplate of Wilson of Carmeth.

A good copy, binding square with hinges partially broken but remaining firm, calf heavily rubbed (particularly around extremities), some scratches and grubby marks to covers, bookplate to front pastedown, foxing to prelims and just a tad throughout (contained to extremities), and a couple of small penciled inscriptions (one to FFEP and one to copyright); else a very clean copy inside.

In his 1913 bibliography of Dickens' works, John Eckel notes that 'The Village Coquettes' was originally issued in 1836 in 71 pages in grey boards which sold out quickly. He notes that in 1878, Bentley issued a facsimile reprint clearly marked as a reprint on the reverse of the title page, and that since then, other titles pages were printed by someone who omitted the 'facsimile' statement. Importantly, he further notes that in 1894, a cache of about 100 sets of the true first edition unbound Bentley sheets, clean and unfolded, was suddenly discovered. As our copy does not bear the mark of 'facsimile' on the reverse of the title page and has the width of "Richard Bentley" on title page as on the original first (not reduced to 2-3/8 inches as in the later facsimile reprints), it is safe to conclude this is very likely one of the true firsts in a 19th-century binding. (Podeschi/Gimbel A25; Carr (UTexas) B526; Eckel, 174-176; Yale/Gimbel A25).

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