Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1869. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. Item #48739
8vo. Pp. [viii], 192. Original orange/red pebbled cloth with triple-lined borders and circular gilt illustrations to front and rear boards, as in the first edition, but with the publisher's device at the foot of the spine. This is the second American edition and the first to be printed in America, as the sheets for the earlier (Appleton) editions were imported from England. The cloth is a little lighter in color in some spots, and the spine is slightly sunned. All edges gilt, with brown coated endpapers. A modern bookplate was removed sloppily, exposing a nineteenth-century bookplate of Adelaide S. Dole, with a smaller leather bookplate above that of H.R.S. Jr. Several clippings relating to Alice and Lewis Carroll are affixed to the blanks at front and rear, as follows: front endpaper (r), half-title (v), frontis illustration (r), first rear blank (r), and rear endpapers. The hinge between the first blank and half-title is weak, with a small split at the top of the blank; there is light darkening to the gutter between the frontis and title page, and a small tear at the bottom gutter of the title page. A neat pencil gift inscription on the half-title is dated 1869 to Adelaide S. Dale, from Julia Harrington. A delicate copy with some fragility in the prelims and the added clippings somewhat unfortunate, but overall still a pretty nice copy, clean, with the cloth bright and without restoration. Parrish, p. 6; Smith, R. D. Hilton, No. 14, page 9.
Price (CAD): $2,500.00