BEAUTIFULLY BOUND AND PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED SET OF DICKENS’ WORKS, ONE OF ONLY 100 SETS PRODUCED, WITH MANY HAND-COLORED PLATES
DICKENS, Charles. The Works…. With More than One Thousand Illustrations, Including all the usual & very many unusual plates. Edited by Richard Garnett… London: Merrill & Baker, circa 1900. Thirty-one volumes. Thick octavo, contemporary full brown morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut and partially unopened.
Magnificent set of Dickens’ works, the "Manuscript Edition," number 8 of only 100 sets produced, richly illustrated with over 1000 captioned tissue-guarded plates by Kyd, Phiz, Cruikshank and others, many delicately and vividly hand-colored.
"His imaginative freshness, his deep and sincere tenderness and pity, his whole-souled humor that is seldom sharpened into wit, his superabundance of creative energy, have built a deathless niche in the temple of fame for Charles Dickens" (Kunitz & Haycraft, 184). This delightful set includes the two-volume Life by John Forster and all of Dickens' major works. Without one volume only, presumably of letters.
An outstanding set in about-fine condition, just a few volumes with minor expert headcap repairs. Splendidly bound and illustrated.