Master Humphrey's Clock Dickens, Charles 19Th Century British Literature,Dickens

Triple decker first edition in book form in publisher's blind stamped, ribbed brown cloth with a central gilt device of a clock, spine elaborately stamped and titled in gilt. Includes The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge before they were separately issued. Profusely illustrated with frontispieces plus 194 wood-engraved illustrations, 154 by "Phiz" (Hablot Browne) and 39 by George Cattermole (though Smith notes some dispute about such numbers). Engraved frontispiece in each volume with tissue guard. "This odd mélange which includes The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, and an elaborate surrounding apparatus, is the pinnacle of Dickensian Gothic." (Ray, 1991). Large 8vo. 3 vols. Smith I: 6 (this copy with most internal flaws, of which Smith does not assign priority. This copy with non-marbled endpapers and trimmed edges which suggests priority over marbled copies); Eckel pp. 67-70. Ray, Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914, 60. A very good set with spines and upper front cover of vol. III gently sunned, printer's tickets of Benjamin Smith of Liverpool to front pastedowns, text and illustrations clean. An attractive example.