Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth, 1846 [1845], first edition

DICKENS, CHARLES

The Cricket on the Hearth. A Fairy Tale of Home. London: Bradbury and Evans for the author, 1846 [1845]

8vo (166 x 103mm.), first edition, 14 illustrations by Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise and Landseer, advertisement leaf for Oliver Twist at the end (second state), original deep red vertically-ribbed cloth, covers decorated in blind, upper cover pictorially gilt with fireplace design, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, pale yellow-coated endpapers, all edges gilt

The Cricket on the Hearth was published on 20 December 1845. It sold out before the new year and no fewer than 17 subsequent dramatizations of the story were staged.

REFERENCE:

Smith II:6

PROVENANCE:

"Emma Sutton", contemporary ownership signature dated Christmas Eve 1845