DICKENS, Charles (1812-70). Master Humphrey's Clock, London, 1840, 3 vols., large 8vo, 3 frontispieces, illustrations, original pictorial cloth gilt. FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM, THE PUBLISHER'S COPY, annotated. (3)

DICKENS, Charles (1812-70).  Master Humphrey's Clock. London: Chapman and Hall, 1840-41. 3 volumes, large 8vo (256 x 170mm). 3 wood-engraved frontispieces and illustrations by George Cattermole and "Phiz" [i.e. Hablot K. Browne] (blank corner of E1 torn away in vol. one, occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Original publisher's pictorial cloth boards decorated in gilt and blind, each upper cover with a large clock tool stamped in gilt, the hour shown on the clock face corresponding to the volume number (text block of vol. II broken with some signatures detached, extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: "Chapman's (the Publisher) own copy, with his Mss. corrections. Clock case on cover of each vol." (old pencil inscription on front free endpaper of vol. one); E. L. Dacie (old signatures on front free endpapers). FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM, bound-up from the original parts. THE PUBLISHER'S COPY, with pencil markings and instructions throughout for a new edition. Most of the instructions relate to the layout of the illustrations rather than the text, in particular indicating that the illustrations in the text should be reprinted "full page." Another note, by a crossed-out initial, states, "No initial letters to be used." Eckel p. 68; Gimbel A50; Hatton and Cleaver pp. 163-182; Smith I, 6. (3)