Dickens, Charles.

8vo (181 x 118mm.), new edition in one volume, presentation copy inscribed on the title page by Dickens to his housemaid's daughter Kate Cornelius ("Charles Dickens | November, 1864 | To Katie Cornelius"), contemporary maroon morocco, spine in six compartments decorated in gilt, green morocco label, gilt illustration of the signing of the Magna Carta within wreath on upper cover, marbled endpapers and edges, some slight spotting at the beginning and end, minor wear to covers



[together with:] A whitework embroidered and cutwork christening robe, the delicately embroidered Ayreshire work c.1860, the sleeves and skirt with Arts and Crafts style cutwork patterns, c.1900, length 1000mm.

[A Child's History of England:] Kate Cornelius, the daughter of Dickens' housemaid, presentation inscription to her; thence by descent
[Christening robe:] The family of Anne Cornelius, thence by descent

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A fine presentation copy inscribed by the author to the six-year old daughter of his and his wife Catherine's longtime housemaid Anne Brown. 

Anne Cornelius (neé Brown) was the highly trusted housemaid for the Dickens household, even accompanying the novelist and his wife during their voyage and visit to America between January and June 1842. Anne stayed with the family until her marriage to the French polisher Edward Cornelius in 1855, then returning in 1857, being retained by Dickens even after the novelist's separation from his wife Catherine the following year. Anne's only daughter Kate,  to whom the present lot is inscribed by Dickens, was born on 26th July 1856. The novelist's high regard and affection for his "faithful servant" Anne and her only daughter is testified to in his will, where they are each left bequests of £19 19s (they are the second and third persons mentioned, immediately after the bequest to Ellen Ternan). It is also quite probable that Dickens contributed towards Kate's schooling, since, unusually for the daughter of a housemaid, she was educated at the North London Collegiate School, run by Frances Buss, the daughter of Dickens' illustrator R.W. Buss.

Dickens' intensely anti-aristocratic and anti-monarchical A Child's History of England originally appeared in Household Words between January 1851 and December 1853; the first book edition was published in three volumes between 1851 and 1853. 

The christening robe may have been a gift from Dickens, or even possibly his wife, to their servant Anne, and in its original form may have been used for Kate's christening in 1856. It was obviously very precious as the earlier bodice was re-used: perhaps the skirt of the original gown was damaged or larger babies may have been produced at a later date, facilitating a re-vamp of the Victorian gown with the incorporation of the pretty but more fashionable Edwardian cutwork additions.