Mounted on folio sheets and Bound in Full Crushed Blue Lev- CONTENTS (1) SKETCHES AND DRAWINGS BY CHARLES GREEN, R. I. Pickwick, Wardle and Sam at the White Hart; in pencil. Mantalini, Bill Sykes, Nicholas Nickleby; in pencil. Tom Pinch; Little Nell; in pencil. Sally Brass; in ink. Nell's Grandfather, various attitudes; in ink. Miss Mountfeather's School; in pencil. Mrs. Jarley and Little Nell, at the Wax Works; in ink. Gabriel Varden armed by Dolly Varden; in pencil. The Elder Mr. Turveydrop,-three developments of an idea in pencil. Prince Turvey drop;-three sketches; in pencil. Bailiff at Mantalini's; three sketches. Dolly Varden,-two very delicate sketches. Water color: The drowning of Quilp. Highly finished. and remark- Two sketches for the Christmas Carol; in pencil. Mrs. Tetterby and her boy (The Chimes); in pencil. Mrs. Tetterby, highly finished sketch; in pencil. A series of character studies and episodes from Great Expectations; Water color: Laboratory at Kings College (for the Haunted Man.) Pupils in Prince Turveydrop's Dancing Academy; in pencil. Quilp; in pencil. Quilp and boy walking on his hands; in pencil. Quilp in the act of throwing a chair at Brass; in pencil. Solomon Brass; in ink. Solomon and Sally Brass, in degraded state; in pencil. (2) SKETCHES OF GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. (3) OIL SKETCH BY AUGUSTUS EGG, R. A. A distinct likeness can be traced between this finished portrait sketch as a frontispiece to "Nicholas Nickleby.' AUTOGRAPH LETTERS BY CHARLES DICKENS. This collection of Dickens' letters is of the GREATEST IMPORTANCE. large number touch upon his book and incidents within or relating to them Most of them are written in his happiest style and mood, or have refer ence to persons or events well known in the literary world. All except one or two are signed in full, many of the signatures being of rare beauty. 1. To Chapman & Hall, relative to the publication of "Pickwick,” 1 page. 2. To Capt. Marryat, Sept. 16, 1843. A letter of 3 pages, very friend ly, containing references to past meetings and mutual visits. 3. To E. Lloyd, relative to the conclusion of "Pickwick," 1 page. Villa des Bolineaux, Boulogne, Saturlay, July 5 1856. 4. My dear, It seems as if months—not to say years—had passed since I wrote to you or heard from you. We have both been very busy to account for it. I hope you yourself liked what was done in the Paper about the Pusies? There seems to have been a tardy and uneven distribution of the Summary, to the papers, of which I heard several complaints when I was in town. The disaster of Itch at the Home is a little unfortunate; but I have a strong hope that it will not spread in the least. The place being so extremely clean and well-kept there is every ground for feeling confident that it will not occasion much inconvenience. Louisa Cooper (who, you remember, went to the Cape with Mrs. Boyle), has been two or three times with Mrs. Marchmont and the other day left a letter with her, addressed to me, describing her approaching want of a situation. She was only engaged by the lady who brought her home, for the Voyage and until she should be settled. She seems to have had a pesperately hard place, with every thing to do mantua making included for seven children, and whose mother overworked herself. She will leave on the 14th and has no relations or friends except "the young man" to whom she is engaged and who cannot marry (she says) until he finds a Gardener's place as a married man. Mrs. Marchmont is en deavoring to help her to a situation, but as yet without effect. Would you wish me to do anything in answer to the letter? Going over to London the other day, I found the Pavillion at Folkestone in a state of amazing excitement about a robbery that had been committed there. It would take three quarters of an hour to tell the story, but the following are the heads." Then follows a humorous synopsis of the events connected with the robbery. 5. Letter, 2 pages, to Lord Raynham. Presiding at dinner, etc. 6. Letter, 1 p. to Lovell Reeve. Referring to paper on Shelley. 7. Letter, 2 pp. to George Cattermole. Asking C. to make frontispiece for finished volume of "Old Curiosity Shop." 8. Letter, 2 pp. to George Cattermole. Asking C. to try his hand on illustration for "Barnaby Rudge": "A party of rioters (with Hugh and Simon Tappentit conspicuous among them) in Old John Willet's Bar turning the liquor taps to their own advantage-smashing bottles-cutting down the grove of lemons- sitting astride on casks drinking out of the best punchbowls eating the great cheese-smoking sacred pipes etc., etc.-John Willet, fallen backward in his chair, regarding them with a stupid horror, and quite alone among them, with none of the Maypole customers at his back." 9. Letter 2 pp. to Mrs. Watson. "As Copperfield is your book, you know, it has occurred to me that you might possibly like to see the end of it before the rest of the World does. Being in town to-day I send you the sheets of the conclusion," etc. 10. Letter, 4 pp. to Lord Denman, dated 1850. Refers to the horrors of slavery, the indifference to this subject by the public, and Lord Denman's work in the interest of sound administration. 11. Letter, 4 pp., to William Farren, the actor. Makes objection to his treatment at Farren's theatre on having received a ticket for a seat already occupied by someone else. 12. Letter, 4 pp., to Lord John Russell. 24 Dec., 1850. Thanking Lord R. for his kindness to the actor Poole, who was granted a pension of 100 a year, owing to Dickens' intervention. D. describes Lis visit to Poole in Paris. "It was a very cold dark day, and after ringing the bell at the outer door of his apartment for some time, I turned the handle and walked in. There was a glass door across the little hall....and after looking close to the glass door for a minute or two, I gradually became aware that Mr. Poole (in his shirt) was close to it at the other side looking at me. I called to him by name, and he instantly sprang into his bed, which was in a little recess, and invited me to open the glass door and enter the inner room where the recess and the bed both were. I complied, and held a conversation with him—he in bed, nervously quivering the bedclothes, and I sitting by the fire-which was repeatedly interrupted by violent and unaccountable blows at the ceiling. I tried to conceal The discomposure which these mysterious shocks occasioned me, but I suppose he noticed the effort, for he said, with the entire nervousness of his whole frame concentrated in his face as he looked over the counterpane, 'The people-Professor Keller-and his wife-and several strong men who do the poses plastiques—at the theatre—have taken—a sort of attic-loft-overhead to rehearse in. They they begin with Ajax defying the lightning at daybreak. They-they-defy the lightning all day. I-I know I shall die, die here. They are my murderers.' I endeavored to comfort him, but at the next crash he disappeared altogether under the bedclothes_____where I left him—and but for the Professor and his company providentially being in debt and flying from Paris, I really believe he never would have lived to be put on the pension list.'' 13. Letter, 2 pp., to Lady Eastlake, dated 1858. Stating that he had been ill for six days in bed, for the first time in my life." "Since Monday last I have been shaving a man every morning-a stranger to me, with big gaunt eyes and a hollow cheek-whose appearance was rather irksome and oppressive. I am happy to say that he has at last retired from the looking-glass and is replaced by the familiar personage whom I have lathered and scraped these twenty years. He (the last named) sends you his best regards.'' 14. Letter, 2pp., to Mrs. Gore. 15. Note, 1 p., to Bradbury and Evans, on "Household Words" Stationery. Asking for Little Dorrit No. 6., and a pull of No. 7. 16. Letter, 3 pp., to Sir Edwin Landseer, with envelope attached. Dated Paris, 1856. Refers to having gone away to rest after a reading tour. Very amusing expostulations about a passage in letter from Landseer, "What have you done with the Tin? "Here I broke off, put some straws in my hair, some more straws in my shoes, took a wisp in each hand, and went about the room, theatrically mad, repeating for two hours 'What hove I-I-done with the Tin.' "Mrs. Dickens and Georgiana send their kindest regards. They think you ought to come back and spend the-ha ha ha!—the TIN-my tin— the tin that I-ho ho ho ! Ever heartily yours, 17. To E. Walford Esq., 2 pp., on "Gads Hill" stationery; blue ink; 1858. "But I would suggest to you that it is hardly well to rest anything connected with the origin of the Pickwick papers, on a vague "it said," when their origin has been for some years exactly described by my own hand and before the Public, in the preface to the cheap edition of that work.' 18. Letter, 2pp., to a contributor to "Household Words." Declining an offered contribution, giving reasons and adding friendly advice and commendation. 19. Letter, 2 pp., to Rev. George Wilkinson, 1857. "I hear (as you do) on high and learned authority, that there need no longer be dalays in chancery. Highly gratifying and convincing. perhaps; but if that pestilent court cannot, or do not, make it's own agents do their duty, it is, in my poor opinion, body and soul a Humbug. Against such a dragon I know no remedy but a Saint George." 20. Letter, 1 p., to John Dillon, 1857. 21. Letter, 3 pp., on Tavistock House stationery, blue ink; 1859. Referring to Forster. 22. Letter, 2 pp., to Miss Strickland written at Twickenham. Referring to the "Pic Nic Papers." 23. Letter. 1 n.. to Mr. Day; 1870. Refers to passage in "Edwin Drood", giving instruction for the correction of a passage on page 75 (in no. 3) of this book. 24-69. 46 letters to Lieut Tracy, comprising 75 pages. On various matters. One, an amusing epistle is in cockney brogue. Another refers to a Railroad accident he was in. Inlaid five franked envelopes, four of which carry the full signature "Charles Dickens.'' One of these, written in a feeble hand (without the signature) is dated July 5th 1865; and on this Lieut. Tracy has written: "Last Note." One letter, 3 pp., from John Forster to Lieut. Tracy. Mentions Dickens and Stanfield. One letter, 2 pp., from Thomas Carlyle, written from Chelsea, addressed to Spedding, declining with regrets an invi'ation to attend some festive occasion. "One toast I will beg of you on that festive occasion. JOINT LETTER OF ROBERT AND ELIZABETH B. BROWNING Twelve pages, Dated Paris, Hotel de Londres, n. d. and addressed to Miss Bailey. The first 92 pages are in the hand of E. B. B. and signed "Ba." She mentions her improved health, her life in Paris and her acquaintences there, and refers to Mr. Kenyon and other friends, also to Francis Newman, whose "Theism" she has read, and Miss Cobbe, the author of Intuitive Morals. She continues: "What is this sad story of Dickens and his wife? Incompatibility of temper, after twenty three years of married life! What a plea! Worse than irregularity of the passions, it seems to me. Parents should endure more for the sake of their children, I do hold, to avoid stripping off the leaves of natural household joy from the green branches over their young heads-taking the mother from one child and the father from the other, and the sense of family love and union from all." Dickens bookplate. PENCIL NOTE BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. "The illustrations to "Pickwick' were commenced by Seymour, one or two were done by Buss & the remainder by a Mr. Brown who's nom de guerre is Phiz etc. Several sketches by Cruikshank on the same paper. 31. ELIOT (GEORGE). Life, as related in her Letters and Journals. Edited by J. W. Cross. Portraits and illustrations. 3 vols. 8vo, original cloth. Edinburgh, 1885 FIRST EDITION. 32. [ELIOT.] Woolson (Abba G. ). George Eliot and her Heroines. A Stury. 12mo, cloth. New York, 1886 PRESENTATION COPY, with an inlaid A. L. s. from the Author to Mr. Stedman. With the E. C. Stedman bookplate. RARE COLLECTION OF GEORGE ELIOT FIRST EDITIONS 33. ELIOT (GEORGE). A Collection of First Editions of the Novels and Tales of George Eliot, together with her Poetical Works. 28 vols. 12mo and 8vo, cloth, uncut (some bindings a little worn). Comprising: Scenes of Clerical Life, 2 vols., 1858 Adam Bede, 3 vols. Names on titles, 1859 The Mill on the Floss, 3 vols., 1860 Silas Marner, 1861 Romola, 3 vols., 1863. With A. L. s., [see note] Felix Holt the Radical, 3 vols., 1866 The Spanish Gypsy, 1868 How Lisa Loved the King, 1869 Middlemarch, 4 vols., (Names on titles.) 1871-2 The Legend of Jubal, 1874 Daniel Deronda, 4 vols., 1876 Impressions of Theophrastus Such, 1879 Essays and Leaves from a Note-Book, 1884 V.p., v.d. A RARE COLLECTION. Inserted in the copy of "Romola" is a 4pp. A. L. s. of the Author. "M. E. Lewes" 8vo, Dorking, March 1, 1863, to Miss Emily Faithful, referring to the work. "Romola will continue its monthly appearance until August, and various considerations forbid my contemplating the publication of another WITH ORIGINAL DRAWINGS 34. GOLDSMITH (OLIVER). The Vicar of Wakefield. Illustrated with Thirteen Original Drawings by J. Massey Wright and the proof Engravings by Sangster. 4to, full blue crushed levant orocco, elaborately gilt, gilt edges, by Rivière. London, 1875 A MOST INTERESTING AND UNIQUE COPY. Bound in are the 13 beautiful original water-color drawings by J. Massey Wright. He was a pupil of Thomas Stothard, and these examples of his work exhibit all the charm of grace, beauty and delicacy of that famous artist himself. The book contains, besides the specially printed title, a special introduction. The engravings by Sangster are all in proof state on India Paper. |