Dickens, The Chimes, 1845, first edition, with original watercolour and autograph letter signed by Maclise

DICKENS, CHARLES

The Chimes: A Goblin Story. London: Chapman and Hall, 1845 [1844]

8vo (166 x 104mm.), first edition, 13 illustrations (including frontispiece and vignette title) by Maclise, Doyle, Leech and Stanfield, first state of the vignette title, advertisement for tenth edition of A Christmas Carol at the beginning, ORIGINAL WATERCOLOUR DRAWING BY JOHN LEECH OF TROTTY VECK TIPPED-IN TO P.9 ASIDE THE ILLUSTRATON IN THE TEXT, AUTOGRAPH LETTER BY DANIEL MACLISE TIPPED-IN AT THE BEGINNING (3 pages, "Saturday", no place, to an unnamed recipient, on the subject of varnishing pictures), pale yellow endpapers, original deep red vertically-ribbed cloth, uppers decorated in blind, upper cover pictorially gilt with design of seven goblins above six chimes, spine and upper cover lettered in gilt, all edges gilt, cloth case, original watercolour on a sheet of paper with some staining, creases and some tears, extremities of the sheet of paper worn, head and foot of the spine bumped, upper hinge is split

DICKENS' SECOND "CHRISTMAS" BOOK WITH AN ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATION BY LEECH AND A LETTER BY MACLISE. The watercolour also includes an extra sketch for a head in the top right hand corner.

In his letter Maclise declares that "I dread all sorts of varnishing. The longer you keep the picture without varnish the better. I am quite sure it cannot want it, nor will it, I think for a very long time. . . . I cannot say when the illustrated edition of Moore's Melodies will be ready, for my attention is diverted at present to other matters..."

REFERENCE:

Smith II:5

PROVENANCE:

George Barr McCutcheon, bookplate, sale of his library at the American Art Association, New York, 21/22 April 1926, lot 75; Herbert L. Carlebach, morocco book-label, sale of his library Parke Bernet, New York, 20 January 1948, lot 33; later bookplate

The collector George Barr McCutcheon (1866–1928) is more popularly known as a novelist and a playwright. His work includes the series of novels set in Graustark, a fictional East European country, and the novel Brewster's Millions, which was adapted into a play and several films.