12
Dickens, Dombey & Son, Original Parts 1846-48
1/5
Description
Dealings With The Firm Of Dombey And Son, Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation, By Charles Dickens, With Illustrations By H.K. Browne, London: Bradbury & Evans, Whitefriars. Agents: - J.Menzies, Edinburgh; J.Macleod, Glasgow; J. M’Glashan, Dublin, with twenty monthly parts bound in nineteen, as issued; the last part was a double number (XIX and XX bound together), and all the monthly parts are in the original green wrappers. The first part came out in October, 1846 and they ran through April, 1848.
The short title for this book is Dombey and Son, and there are forty plates by H. K. Browne altogether, with all the parts priced at one shilling, except for the last double number, which was priced at two shillings because it contained two parts bound as one. Browne designed the plates as well as etched them, and the sale of the book was so great that “Phiz”, the pen name for Hablot K. Browne, was compelled to etch two sets of plates and some had to be lithographed to meet the demand, so you have to watch out for the lithographed plates because their use indicates a later printing. (See Eckel page 75.) Generally, the captions on the lithographs were “smudgy” and black instead of hairline, and all the plates here have hairline captions - even the so-called Dark Plate
in No. XVIII has hairline captions - which means these plates are from the first edition and not a later printing. (The Dark Plate is titled “On the Dark Road” and was created from a printing process that gave the background a darker, more somber effect.)
The parts have nearly all the other details to make this a first edition in the first state as well. Part No. V is supposed to have a 12-line errata slip for the Parts to be considered a first issue set, and the errata slip is present here before the plates, as called for. (Eckel says this errata slip is essential.)
Another error by the author was not included in the errata - on page 284 of No IX, Dickens used the word “Delight” for “Joy” to describe Mr. Toot’s boat - it was supposed to be called “Joy”, but it got called “Delight” in the first printing - and that error is present and was never corrected.
A couple of other typographical errors were included in the errata and have never been correct here either: on the last line of page 324 in No. XI, “Captain” is misspelled “Capatin”, and on line 9 of page 426 in No. XIV, the word “if” is missing at the beginning of the line, and these are all first issue points. The only mistake that has been corrected is the page number at the top of page 431 in No. XIV - the page number was omitted in the earlier copies of Dombey and Son, and the page number is present here.
And on the last of the forty plates here - it’s in Part XX - H.K. Browne put the famous hook on Captain Cuttle’s left hand, instead of the right, the way Dickens wanted, another uncorrected error.
So nearly all the first issue points are present here - the hairline captions, the errata slip in Part V, the “Delight” for “Joy” mistake, the typographical errors in No. XI and XIV , and the hook on the wrong hand of Captain Cuttle - those errors have not been corrected, and the only corrected error is the missing page number on page 431 - which means the set is almost a first edition in the first state, but not quite - it has to be called a first edition in a mixed state, even if all the other first issue points are here, because the error on page 431 has been corrected.
A two-line errata note is also present at the rear of No. XX and it says that on page 494 [in No. XVI], the first line of the chapter reads “downstairs” instead of “above stairs”, and on page 497, line 29 from the top reads “you too”, instead of "you two”. Both mistakes are present in Part XVI and uncorrected here, as called for. (There’s also an eight-line errata at the end of some some copies of No. XX, but that has to be a later printing, according to Hatton and Cleaver, just because it’s eight lines long instead of two.)
There a couple of other details to note. Several Parts have colored ads in them: No. I has yellow and green ads at the rear, No. II has a green ad in the rear, No. VI has green ads in the back, and No. IX has a beautiful Dakin & Compy Tea Merchants ad in blue, all as called for, and in No. II, the ad for Dickens’ A New Christmas Tale is present, but it’s supposed to be pink, and here it’s white.
All the Dombey and Son Advertisers are present at the front of each part, as called for,
and nearly all the other slips and ads are present. VII has a four-page slip in front and
IX has two slips at the rear, both as called for. The only missing ads seem to be an ad for Gilbert’s Dictionary at the rear of No. X and an ad for Punch in No. XVI, and those are relatively minor omissions.
There are remnants of a bookseller’s label on the front of Parts V and X and the full bookseller’s label is at the bottom of the cover of No. XX, and there are uncut pages in Nos. V, X, XIV, XVI, and XX.
H. K. Browne (Hablot K. Browne 1815 - 1822) was an English artist who illustrated many of Dickens’ novels - his pen name was “Phiz” and he was Dickens’ favorite artist
- and Dombey and Son was the first time Browne ever used the dark plate technique.
The spines are rather clean, with some light bumps here and there, but not much wear on the spines at all; the pages and margins of the text are clean, and all forty plates are present, but most of the them have browning or spots; and No. VI has a half-inch tear at the bottom of the front cover and No. XIV a one and a half-inch tear along the spine at the back.
The Parts are housed in a green custom box which measures 9 3/4 x 6 5/8 in. wide with faded letters on the spine, and the Parts measures 8 3/4 x 5 5/8 in. wide apiece.
So this is basically a first edition, first issue set with a couple of small kinks - the page number on one page has been added and two minor ads are missing, other than that
this is a nearly complete first edition set in the first state.
See The First Editions Of Charles Dickens, Their Points and Values, John C. Eckel 1932 and A Bibliography of the Periodical Works of Charles Dickens: Bibliographical, Analytical & Statistical, by Thomas Hatton and Arthur Cleaver 1933 to identify first editions and first states in the periodicals of Dickens.
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Dealings With The Firm Of Dombey And Son, Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation, By Charles Dickens, With Illustrations By H.K. Browne, London: Bradbury & Evans, Whitefriars. Agents: - J.Menzies, Edinburgh; J.Macleod, Glasgow; J. M’Glashan, Dublin, with twenty monthly parts bound in nineteen, as issued; the last part was a double number (XIX and XX bound together), and all the monthly parts are in the original green wrappers. The first part came out in October, 1846 and they ran through April, 1848.
The short title for this book is Dombey and Son, and there are forty plates by H. K. Browne altogether, with all the parts priced at one shilling, except for the last double number, which was priced at two shillings because it contained two parts bound as one. Browne designed the plates as well as etched them, and the sale of the book was so great that “Phiz”, the pen name for Hablot K. Browne, was compelled to etch two sets of plates and some had to be lithographed to meet the demand, so you have to watch out for the lithographed plates because their use indicates a later printing. (See Eckel page 75.) Generally, the captions on the lithographs were “smudgy” and black instead of hairline, and all the plates here have hairline captions - even the so-called Dark Plate
in No. XVIII has hairline captions - which means these plates are from the first edition and not a later printing. (The Dark Plate is titled “On the Dark Road” and was created from a printing process that gave the background a darker, more somber effect.)
The parts have nearly all the other details to make this a first edition in the first state as well. Part No. V is supposed to have a 12-line errata slip for the Parts to be considered a first issue set, and the errata slip is present here before the plates, as called for. (Eckel says this errata slip is essential.)
Another error by the author was not included in the errata - on page 284 of No IX, Dickens used the word “Delight” for “Joy” to describe Mr. Toot’s boat - it was supposed to be called “Joy”, but it got called “Delight” in the first printing - and that error is present and was never corrected.
A couple of other typographical errors were included in the errata and have never been correct here either: on the last line of page 324 in No. XI, “Captain” is misspelled “Capatin”, and on line 9 of page 426 in No. XIV, the word “if” is missing at the beginning of the line, and these are all first issue points. The only mistake that has been corrected is the page number at the top of page 431 in No. XIV - the page number was omitted in the earlier copies of Dombey and Son, and the page number is present here.
And on the last of the forty plates here - it’s in Part XX - H.K. Browne put the famous hook on Captain Cuttle’s left hand, instead of the right, the way Dickens wanted, another uncorrected error.
So nearly all the first issue points are present here - the hairline captions, the errata slip in Part V, the “Delight” for “Joy” mistake, the typographical errors in No. XI and XIV , and the hook on the wrong hand of Captain Cuttle - those errors have not been corrected, and the only corrected error is the missing page number on page 431 - which means the set is almost a first edition in the first state, but not quite - it has to be called a first edition in a mixed state, even if all the other first issue points are here, because the error on page 431 has been corrected.
A two-line errata note is also present at the rear of No. XX and it says that on page 494 [in No. XVI], the first line of the chapter reads “downstairs” instead of “above stairs”, and on page 497, line 29 from the top reads “you too”, instead of "you two”. Both mistakes are present in Part XVI and uncorrected here, as called for. (There’s also an eight-line errata at the end of some some copies of No. XX, but that has to be a later printing, according to Hatton and Cleaver, just because it’s eight lines long instead of two.)
There a couple of other details to note. Several Parts have colored ads in them: No. I has yellow and green ads at the rear, No. II has a green ad in the rear, No. VI has green ads in the back, and No. IX has a beautiful Dakin & Compy Tea Merchants ad in blue, all as called for, and in No. II, the ad for Dickens’ A New Christmas Tale is present, but it’s supposed to be pink, and here it’s white.
All the Dombey and Son Advertisers are present at the front of each part, as called for,
and nearly all the other slips and ads are present. VII has a four-page slip in front and
IX has two slips at the rear, both as called for. The only missing ads seem to be an ad for Gilbert’s Dictionary at the rear of No. X and an ad for Punch in No. XVI, and those are relatively minor omissions.
There are remnants of a bookseller’s label on the front of Parts V and X and the full bookseller’s label is at the bottom of the cover of No. XX, and there are uncut pages in Nos. V, X, XIV, XVI, and XX.
H. K. Browne (Hablot K. Browne 1815 - 1822) was an English artist who illustrated many of Dickens’ novels - his pen name was “Phiz” and he was Dickens’ favorite artist
- and Dombey and Son was the first time Browne ever used the dark plate technique.
The spines are rather clean, with some light bumps here and there, but not much wear on the spines at all; the pages and margins of the text are clean, and all forty plates are present, but most of the them have browning or spots; and No. VI has a half-inch tear at the bottom of the front cover and No. XIV a one and a half-inch tear along the spine at the back.
The Parts are housed in a green custom box which measures 9 3/4 x 6 5/8 in. wide with faded letters on the spine, and the Parts measures 8 3/4 x 5 5/8 in. wide apiece.
So this is basically a first edition, first issue set with a couple of small kinks - the page number on one page has been added and two minor ads are missing, other than that
this is a nearly complete first edition set in the first state.
See The First Editions Of Charles Dickens, Their Points and Values, John C. Eckel 1932 and A Bibliography of the Periodical Works of Charles Dickens: Bibliographical, Analytical & Statistical, by Thomas Hatton and Arthur Cleaver 1933 to identify first editions and first states in the periodicals of Dickens.
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