Charles Dickens

A first edition, first issue copy of Charles Dickens' Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi.

• Sold as a set of 2 volumes.
• Charles Dickens (English).
• Illustrated by George Cruikshank.
• Edited by "Boz."
• London: Richard Bentley, 1838.
• Octavo.
• Includes 12 illustrations.
• Bound in publisher's floral-patterned, embossed, pink cloth, spines gilt.

From the library of Eric Quayle. The first issue of Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi by Charles Dickens is identifiable via the appearance of the plate at page 238 in volume two in its first state, without the grotesque border, which was added later.

Grimaldi was one of the most renowned English actors of the Regency period. In the early 1800s, he greatly expanded the role of the clown in the Harlequinade and made it his own to such an extent that a clown became known as a "Joey" and his white-face makeup became standard for all types of clown.

Eric Stanley Quayle (1921–2001) was a noted British bibliophile (with a collection of 16,000 volumes), collector, historian and author. His own work was mainly related to the themes of collecting books, but he also produced a noted biography of R. M. Ballantyne (1967) and two books of folktales: one of Cornish tales (The Magic Ointment) and one of Japanese tales (The Shining Princess).