Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by CARROLL, Lewis (DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge] - 1866

London: Macmillan and Co, 1866. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 8vo (194 x 128 mm). [12], 192 pp., half-title, electrotyped frontispiece protected by tissue guard, and 42 illustrations from the woodcuts by Dalziel after John Tenniel. Original publisher's pictorial red cloth ruled in gilt, covers with gilt vignettes (Alice on front, Cheshire Cat on rear), spine lettered in gilt, light blue endpapers, Burn's ticket on lower pastedown. Binding completely untouched with some light spotting and soiling to cloth, upper joint with a bit of deterioration to cloth at head, about 5 cm split at lower joint towards head of spine, corners bumped, light wear and fraying to cloth at spine ends and corners, signature 'P' slightly pulled with resulting cracking in gutter between pages 104/105, front endpaper split at fold. Internally bright and clean with very little age-toning only. Provenance: Harry Vinton Long (armorial bookplate to front pastedown). A near fine, completely unsophisticated copy in the rare first-state binding with light blue endpapers. ----

PMM 354. FIRST PUBLISHED EDITION. The first edition of 2,000 was recalled by Dodgson, following the unsatisfactory printing of Tenniel's illustrations, and was never offered for public sale. Only about 20 copies of this 1865 Macmillan survive, most in institutional collections. For this new edition the book was re-set by the printer Richard Clay from a copy of the 1865 Alice (prepared by The Clarendon Press, Oxford); it is this version which formed the basis for all future Macmillan editions. This copy is of the first state with inverted "S" in the last line of contents page and with the earliest known end-papers in light blue (later bindings have dark green end-papers). Whereas most first edition copies on the market have rebacked spines or at least repaired joints, our copy doesn't show any such intervention.