Dombey and Son. - 1848

London: Bradbury and Evans,, 1848. In the primary cloth First edition, bound from the original parts, in the publisher's primary cloth binding. The novel is "now recognized as one of the greatest of all his works... It is also the first one to have an explicitly contemporary setting" (ODNB). Following issue in parts from September 1846 to March 1848, Bradbury and Evans issued the novel in book form in the present cloth. In the 19th number of the part issue, a slip advertised the novel, ready for delivery on 12 April, at £1 1s. in cloth, or £1 4s. 6d in half morocco. The slip goes on to note "Subscribers desirous of having their copies bound in a similar style can have them done by Messrs. Chapman & Hall, 186, Strand, or through their Booksellers, at the following prices:– Whole bound, morocco gilt edges 6s. 6d. Half bound, marble leaves, 4[s.] 6[d]. In cloth, lettered 1[s.] 6[d]". This copy represents an owner of the parts making use of these binding services, with the characteristic stab-holes in the gutter where unstitched from the wrappers. At such a reduced price (1s. 6d compared to £1 1s for a new copy in cloth), it is evident why an owner of a complete set in parts would prefer having them bound, rather than purchasing a new book-form copy. For Dickens's novels, the publisher kept a stock of first edition sheets, and bound up copies and issued them over time as demand required. So too, owners of the parts could make use of the binding services long after publication. Changes in the cloth design over time allow the binding to be dated, and a primary binding to be identified. Smith noted this binding style as a variant, but incorrectly identified a binding with a chain design as the primary - the chain design was in fact introduced by Chapman and Hall in the 1860s, after they acquired remaining first edition sheets from Bradbury and Evans. Similar bindings with a chain design can be seen in Chapman and Hall's Dickens publications of the 1860s (see Kremers, p. 249). Kremers has subsequently identified this design, which he dubs "marigold", as the primary binding. "Marigold" is unique to Dombey and Son. Copies of the novel were subsequently bound into the "lineal-globe" cloth in the 1850s with a central arabesque on the covers, which is the primary binding of Bleak House (1853) and Little Dorrit (1857), and the "chain" cloth in the 1860s as stated above; these are secondary bindings. The primary "marigold" binding has two variants of blocking, with ornamentation on the inner frame, as here, and without; the variant with ornamentation is presumed by Kremers to be the earlier. The spine lettering also has two variants (indiscriminate with the blocking variants), the base lettered either "London 1848", or "London" only, as here; the absence of the date is presumed by Kremers to be secondary state. Demy octavo. Original green diaper cloth, Kremers' "marigold" (primary), spine lettered in gilt, spine and covers with elaborate design in blind, cream endpapers. Frontispiece, vignette title, and 38 plates by Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz); plate 35 being the first published example of a "dark plate". Expertly recased with neat repair at spine ends and joints, spine and extremities a little sunned, slight stain to front cover and ringstain to rear, some foxing as usual, plates browned and stained at foot. A very good copy. Smith I, 8. Lars Kremers, "A Comparative Bibliography of the Sheets and Publishers' Cloth Cases of the Demy Octavo Works of Charles Dickens, 1837-1872", 2013, pp. 210-211.