Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1844
Hand-colored frontis Mr. Fezziwig’s Ball, Carey & Hart. Hand-colored Marley’s Ghost, Carey & Hart.
P.S. Duvat. Hand-colored Scrooge’s Third Visitor. Carey & Hart. [88-91/92-93 bound in backward] Hand-colored The Last of the Spirits. Carey & Hart. [157pp]
Rib-grain blue buff cloth, front cover gilt with double-rule border and frame made of floral and other tools, rear cover with the same design in blind, spine gilt in close imitation of the Chapman and Hall design. Publisher’s special gift binding with the stamp of “J. C. Russell, Binder” incorporated into border rules.
First American edition; in the very rare “gift” binding. “During Dickens’s American tour the previous year, he had made an impassioned plea for international copyright protection, but to no avail. Both this volume and the [Harper’s pamphlet of the same year] were pirated;” The Carey and Hart edition lifted not only Dickens’s text, but Leech’s illustrations, and many design elements as well.
