"BOZ" & "PHIZ" AS SEEN BY PHIZ'S SON: EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED AND GORGEOUSLY BOUND

(DICKENS, Charles) BROWNE, Edgar. Phiz and Dickens as They Appeared to Edgar Browne. London: James Nisbet, 1913. Thick quarto, 20th-century red morocco gilt with morocco onlays, original red morocco spine laid down, all edges gilt. $2800.

Signed limited first edition of this engaging, informative memoir about the relationship between Dickens and his longest-serving illustrator, written by the beloved Victorian artist's son, number 24 of only 175 copies printed, signed by author Edgar Browne at the limitation statement, this copy extra-illustrated with a total of 99 plates and one facsimile letter, handsomely bound by Bayntun in pictorial red morocco.

Dickens's chief illustrator for more than 20 years, Hablot "Phiz" Knight Browne was "an abundant and delightful artist who served Victorian storytellers well. Altogether at home with the slapdash novel of the 1830s and 1840s, he took endless pains to realize in vivacious and faithful detail the comic and dramatic scenes offered him by Dickens, Lever, and Ainsworth" (Ray, 78). Here, Browne's son Edgar describes the relationship between artist and author in the context of his own view of his father's life and times. Originally issued with a frontispiece, 36 plates, and a facsimile letter; this copy extra-illustrated with an additional 62 plates. The front cover of this pictorial onlay binding by Bayntun is decorated with a reproduction of Phiz's "Mrs. Pipchin" illustration done in morocco of various colors.

Text very clean, some plates lightly foxed; minor rubbing to corners. A beautiful extra-illustrated copy in very nearly fine condition.