DICKENS, THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH, 1846, WITH AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED TO LADY MONKTON-MILNES, 1862

8vo, 21st edition, original red cloth, [with, laid down on the front free endpapers:] Charles Dickens, autograph letter signed, to Annabella Monckton-Milnes, thanking her for sending a photograph of her "charming labour of love from the Cricket", and for her enjoyment of a public reading from David Copperfield ("...It is far more interesting to me than any of the other Readings, and I am half ashamed to confess - even to you - what a tenderness I have for it..."), blue paper, 1 page, 8vo, headed stationery of Gads Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent, 18 July 1862

Annabella Monckton-Milnes, Lady Houghton (1814-74), ownership inscription ("A.H. Houghton") 

The Letters of Charles Dickens: Volume 10, 1862-64, ed. G. Storey (1998), p.107

The editors of the Letters suggest that Annabella Monckton-Milnes had sent Dickens a photograph of a painting of a scene from Dot, a dramatic adaptation of The Cricket on the Hearth that was performed in London in April 1862.