The Library of Stephen J. Farber

8vo (210 x 127 mm). 43 etchings by Robert Seymour, Robert William Buss, and Hablot Knight Browne (offsetting, spotting throughout.) Contemporary publisher's deluxe(?) full polished dark plum calf gilt, covers ruled in gilt with acanthus leaf devices, spine gilt-stamped with a Baroque design of acanthus leaves (light rubbing to extremes) Provenance: Arthur Thompson (ownership bookplate).

FIRST EDITION, MIXED ISSUE, BOUND FROM THE ORIGINAL PARTS. POSSIBLY IN A PUBLISHER'S DELUXE BINDING. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club was the first novel by Charles Dickens, initially serialized from March 1836 to November 1837. At the time Dickens was working as a parliamentary reporter and was commissioned by his publisher, Chapman & Hall, to create a narrative around a series of comical illustrations by Robert Seymour. The origins of the story itself are controversial, as Seymour has generally received credit for the central idea by everyone except for Dickens himself, who claimed that because the story continued following Seymour's death only a few months into the serialization he clearly did not have very much influence. After Seymour's death Robert William Buss took over illustration duties but his work appeared in only the third installment, after which Dickens's preferred illustrator, Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz") took over.

Chapman & Hall offered three bindings for The Pickwick Papers: calf, half calf, and cloth, as well as a set of "super-bound" deluxe bindings for Dickens to present as gifts, with most but not all bound by Hayday. Eckel, pp. 23-50; Hatton & Cleaver, pp. 3-88; Smith I:3.