viii, 526 pp. Half-title not present. Illustrated with 40 etched plates by George Cruikshank, including frontispiece and additional illustrated title. (8vo), period half calf and cloth, gilt decorated spine with black morocco spine label lettered in gilt, marbled edges. "New Edition, Complete", first combined edition.
Dickens' earliest published works, first appearing in periodicals from 1833 to 1836. Originally published in two series, the first, in 1836, in two volumes, the second in one volume in 1838.
Walter E. Smith, Charles Dickens in the Original Cloth, Part I, p.16, describes the present edition: "When Chapman and Hall obtained the copyright of Sketches in 1837, they published all of them in twenty monthly parts from November 1837 through June 1839. Cruikshank designed a cover, enlarged the plates (except `The Free and Easy' which was discarded), and created 13 new illustrations for these monthly parts. In May, 1839, Chapman and Hall published these parts complete in one volume with all 40 of Cruikshank's illustrations."
Condition:
Wear and rubbing to binding, top board detached but present; ownership signature and chop stamps on front free endpaper; foxing to many plates, mostly in margins but affecting some illustrations; good.