What’s On London: Christie’s Valuable Books and Manuscripts Sale

DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870). A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843.

First edition, first issue, of the most famous Christmas story in the English language. With “Stave I” as the first chapter heading. A masterpiece of English literature and arguably the most widely read and best known of Dickens’s works. Eckel p.110; Smith II, 4.

Octavo (164 x 102mm). 2-page publisher’s advertisement at end. Hand-coloured etched frontispiece and three plates by John Leech, four wood-engravings in the text by W.J. Linton after Leech. Half-title printed in blue, title-page printed in red and blue, verso printed in blue (tear in title neatly repaired, chip in lower corner of K1, occasional spots and stains). Original brown fine-ribbed cloth, covers with decorative blind border surrounding central gilt cartouche and lettering on upper, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, all edges gilt (minor repairs to corners and head- and tailcaps, green endpapers rubbed as usual, hinges cracked but holding). Provenance: Hugh Walpole (English novelist, 1884-1941; ‘Brackenburn’ bookplate).

Estimate: £7,000-10,000.

DAHL, Roald (1916-1990). Charlie and the chocolate factory. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1967.

First British edition, first printing, signed copy. No other signed UK firsts recorded at auction in either RBH or ABPC.

Octavo (247 x 166mm). Numerous illustrations by Faith Jaques (very occasional minor finger-soiling). Original pictorial glazed boards (glazing starting at joints ends, slight chipping to spine ends, lightly soiled and rubbed). Provenance: authorial presentation inscription (on front free endpaper, to: ) – present consignor.

Estimate: £2,000-3,000.

FLEMING, Ian (1908-1964). The Spy Who Loved Me. London: Jonathan Cape, 1962.

First edition, the rare ‘quad’ variant of the first impression. Presentation copy to Fleming’s solicitor Hugh Fisher. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper of his most sexually explicit Bond novel: ‘To Hugh, this rather forward child of his trusteeship! from Ian’.

The Spy Who Loved Me ‘was Fleming’s attempt to “examine Bond from the other end of the gun barrel” […] The story is told in the first person by a fictional young woman named Vivienne Michel (whom Fleming mischievously credited as his co-writer)’. ‘No priority between the two variants has been established […] What is certain, however, is that the ‘quad’ issues are rather more scarce’. Gilbert A10a.

Octavo (190 x 125mm). (Quad mark on title slightly scratched.) Original black cloth, upper cover with a dagger motif stamped in blind and silver, spine lettered in silver, red endpapers, original pictorial dust-jacket after Richard Chopping (jacket with the usual clipped corners, very light wear at extremities, 6mm tear at foot of spine).

Estimate: £7,000-10,000.

All credits to Christie’s Images Ltd. 2017.