The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club. by DICKENS, Charles - 1837: With forty-three illustrations, by R. Seymour and Phiz.

London: Chapman and Hall, 1837. Dickens's first novel, in an elaborate presentation binding, probably by his favourite binder, Hayday First edition, bound from the original parts, of Dickens's first novel, in an elaborate and well-preserved presentation binding, unsigned but most probably executed by Dickens's favourite binder, Hayday. Though not inscribed, the binding has a strong resemblance in style and material with the contemporaneous bindings executed by James Hayday (1796-1872) for those early novels that Dickens presented to his closest associates.
The same vignette of the Greek urn can be seen on presentation bindings by Hayday in the 1830s and 1840s, while the decoration on the spine is notably similar to the lavish "extra-super" bindings commissioned by Dickens's publishers Chapman and Hall for a select few presentation copies. John Forster relates receiving such a copy of Pickwick "in the most luxurious of Hayday's bindings, with a note [by Dickens]: 'Chapman and Hall have just sent me... three "extra-super" bound copies of Pickwick, as per specimen inclosed'" (Forster, v. 1, p. 143-4).
With regard to the oft-cited points, the copy has the two Buss plates replaced by those of Phiz; "Weller" on the engraved title (irrelevant, as both "Weller" and "Veller" plates were in use simultaneously and there is no means to distinguish which was engraved first); it has the signature "E" on page 25 indicating that sheet is of the later printing; most other textual errors uncorrected; and the early Seymour plates (which were later replaced by those of Phiz). It is important to note that all these frequently-cited points only have bearing on the priority of the original parts, and are not of consequence of "issue" for a public/subscriber-bound copy, nor, for that matter, for the book form issue (the sheets and plates available for the book form issue, bound up at the end of the 19-month part issue, were those of the latest printing - for example, the Buss plates did not make it into any book form, as the last copies had gone out issued between the wrappers of parts months earlier). Demy octavo (212 x 132 mm). Finely bound in contemporary purple hard-grain morocco, unsigned but probably by Hayday, smooth spine lettered and decorated in gilt in the cathedral style, covers ruled in gilt and blind, greek urn tooled to covers, marbled edges and endpapers. Etched vignette title page, frontispiece, and 41 plates by Robert Seymour and H. K. Browne. Bookplate of the East baronetcy to front pastedown; later ownership inscription of M. L. Gheyson to frontispiece recto. A touch of rubbing to tips and spine ends, a little foxing to contents, some oxidisation to plates, as often; a very good copy, the binding notably well-preserved. Hatton and Cleaver pp. 1 ff; Smith, I.3; Miller & Strange, A Centenary Bibliography of the Pickwick Papers; Robert Patton, Dickens and his Publishers, p. 326. See Lars Kremers, "A Comparative Bibliography of the Sheets and Publishers' Cloth Cases of the Demy Octavo Works of Charles Dickens, 1837-1872", PhD thesis, Curtin University, November 2013.