[Gad's Hill Place- Auction Catalogues] by DICKENS, Charles - 1870

Two Rare Auction Catalogues for the Sale of Gad's Hill Place [DICKENS, Charles]. Norton, Trist, Watney & Co. [Gad's Hill Place- Auction Catalogue]. Higham, Near Rochester. Kent. A Very Valuable and Beautiful Freehold Property know as "Gadshill Place," for Many Years, the Favorite Abode of Charles Dickens. London: T.W. Nicholson, August 5th, 1870. Pages self-bound together with stab-stitch. Lacking original wrappers. Folio (17 1/4 x 11 inches; 438 x 280 mm). With two colored lithographic views of the property (north view and south view), two folding colored lithographic plans and eight pages of text. Tissue guards. Some light soiling to pages. A light dampstaing to top margin of first lithograph, not affecting illustration. Both folding plans with some creasing. Overall very good. The text pages consist of the description of the property, the conditions of the sale and a blank "Memorandum" to be filled out in the event of purchase. This sale consisted of two lots, Lot 1: "'Gadshill Place,' A Choice Freehold Residential Property" and Lot 2: "An Enclosure of Fine and Arable Land." [Together with]: [Dickens, Charles]. Knight, Frank & Rutley. [Gad's Hill Place- Auction Catalogue]. Kent... The Singularly Interesting Freehold Property Know as Gadshill Place the home of Charles Dickens from 1857 to 1870. London. July 26th, 1923. Original tan printed wrappers. With three photographic plates and a folding plan. Eighteen pages of text. Octavo (9 3/4 x 6 1/8 inches; 245 x 155 mm). Wrappers are lightly soiled. A few light pencil notations on the first plate. Otherwise very good. These text pages consist of "Notes" on the property, "Summary of Particulars," Description of the property, Conditions of the Sale and the Agreement. Both pieces housed together in a red cloth chemise, lettered in gilt. "Well described very recently as 'doubly historic, first, as the Scene of one of Shakespeare's most celebrated pieces of humour, and Secondly, as the abode of the greatest English Humourist who has lived since Shakespeare's time" (from page 2 of the 1870 sale catalogue). "To own Gadshill Place was one of the earliest ambitions of Charles Dickens. As a very small boy he would come out here from his home in Ordnance Terrace, Chatham, and would sit for hours by the wayside conjuring up visions of Falstaff and his gallants and brooding over the house he loved so much...About 1855 Dickens heard unexpectedly that the darling of his boyhood was in the market. His assistant editor, Mr. W.H. Willis, negotiated for it, and it was finally acquired in March, 1856, the cheque for it being written on a Friday. As Dickens remarked about this time, all important events happened to him on a Friday." (From Page 2-3 of the 1923 sale catalogue). Gimbel. Hatton and Cleaver,. Smith, Dickens,. HBS 66340. $6,000