CHRISTMAS BOOKS : MRS. PERKINS'S BALL. OUR STREET. DR. BIRCH.

London : Smith, Elder & Co., 1866. An early collected edition of Thackeray's gentle and engaging social satires, delightfully illustrated with his own drawings, which were originally published as Christmas books between 1846 and 1848. "Eschewing what has become a species of conventional Christmas mannerism - depending for interest and genial tone of colouring neither upon yule logs, nor plum puddings, nor branches of mistletoe, nor smoking boar's heads garnished with bay sprigs and rosemary - Mr. Thackeray's Christmas offering has all the peculiar and original characteristics of the individual mind of its producer ... the very incarnation of riot-running fancy" (Morning Chronicle, 29th December 1846). Crown 8vo (183 x 133mm). viii,(52); 56; (52)pp. Folding frontispiece, engraved title and fifty engraved and lithographed plates from Thackeray's own designs. Bound, without half-title, in an elegant contemporary half chestnut roan, banded and gilt; black label; marbled edges, by Andrew Grieve of Edinburgh (1812-1880), with his blind-stamp; some very minor rubbing and wear; a few spots to the endpapers, but a very good copy in a most attractive binding. With the bookplate of the Reverend John Mitchell Harvey (1835-1876).