Dickens, autograph quotation signed, final line of A Christmas Carol and quote from Barnaby Rudge, 1858

DICKENS, CHARLES

Autograph quotation signed

the concluding line of A Christmas Carol, ("And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us every one!...") followed by a quotation from Barnaby Rudge ("...In which he expressed himself, less theologically but perhaps on the whole more acceptably to Heaven, than Miggs (Miss Miggs, of Mr Vardon's household) when she hoped that 'she hated and despised herself and all her feller creature, as every practicable Christian should.'"), signed and dated, 1 page, 8vo, Leeds, 28 October 1858, "For Miss Alice Taylor"; edge-mounted in an album, with a carte-de-visite photographic portrait, full-length, Case & Getchell, Boston [from a photograph by John and Charles Watkins, 1861], 100 x 60mm; also with a calligraphic transcription, in a folio album (340 x 290mm), red morocco gilt

Dickens gave this transcription during a reading tour; that evening he read The Poor Traveller, Boots, and Mrs Gamp at Leeds Music Hall. The recipient, Alice Taylor, was the daughter of Bridge Taylor, British Consul at Copenhagen.

REFERENCE:

The Letters of Charles Dickens: Volume 8, 1856-58, p.691

PROVENANCE:

Constance McCann Betts and Wyllys Rosseter Betts, armorial bookplate