Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]

Collection of first published editions, also known as the first British edition, of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

• Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (English).
• Illustrations by John Tenniel (English).
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
• Through the Looking Glass.
• First and only prints of John Tenniel’s illustrations from the original wood blocks for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass.
• An original electrotype plate used for printing the illustration of Alice shaking the Red Queen from page 214 of Through the Looking-Glass in presentation case.
• London: Macmillan & Company, 1866 and 1872.
• Signed Bindings by the Bayntun Bindery, Bath, England.
• Bound in full red morocco with gilt decorations and titling in compartments on the spine, gilt characters from each of the books on covers, gilt ruling to the boards and edges, floral gold gilt turn-ins, green endpapers, and gold gilted page ends.
• Each book is housed in a custom clamshell box.

This is the first published edition (also known as the first British edition) of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland published by Macmillan & Co., London in 1866. The publishing history of Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece is well-documented. The book was originally printed in Oxford at the Clarendon Press in June 1865. After receiving copies of the book, Lewis Carroll and John Tenniel were dissatisfied with the quality of the printing and decided to suppress the whole edition of 2,000 copies. The pre-publication copies were recalled and it is believed that no more than 25 of these exist. A new printer, Richard Clay, was commissioned to upgrade the printing for the Macmillan edition which is dated 1866 but was ready by November, 1865 in time for the Christmas market. A total of 4,000 copies were published.