Lot n° 115
Estimation :
500 - 600
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 562EUR
*DICKENS (Charles). - Lot 115
*DICKENS (Charles).
Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi edited by "Boz".
London: Richard Bentley, 1838. - 2 volumes in-12, 186 x 112: portrait, xix pp., (1 f.), 288 pp. 6 plates; frontispiece, ix, 263 pp. 5 plates. Long-grained orange morocco, triple gilt fillet framing the boards, ornate ribbed spine, gilt border inside, gilt edges, slipcase (Bayntun, Bath).
First edition of the memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi (1779-1837), published by Charles Dickens.
Grimaldi was the most famous English clown and mime of the 19th century. He left important memoirs written on about 400 pages. This version was not good enough to be published, so he entrusted the writer Thomas Egerton Wilks to "rewrite, revise and correct" the manuscript. However, Grimaldi died and Wilks completed the work alone, cutting and condensing some passages, and adding elements from conversations he had had with the artist, without saying what was his and what was Grimaldi's. Wilks sold the memoir to the publisher Richard Bentley, who in turn found it too long and poorly written, and asked the novelist Charles Dickens, who was only 25 years old, to edit and rewrite it. Dickens signed a contract in November 1837 and completed the work in January 1838, having taken care to rewrite the memoirs himself, which were from then on strongly influenced by his style. Dickens also wrote the introduction and part of the last chapter.
The edition is illustrated with a copper-engraved portrait of the author by William Greatbach (1792-1878) after a drawing by Samuel Raven (1775-1847), as well as 12 hors texte compositions, also engraved on copper, by George CRUIKSHANK (1792-1878).
A fine copy, printed on wove paper, in a binding by Bayntun, an English binder from Bath.
Spine slightly faded, some rubbing from use. Small crack at the upper spine of the first cover of the first volume.
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