Details
DODGSON, Rev. CHARLES LUTWIDGE ("Lewis Carroll"). Alice's Adventures Under Ground. Being a facsimile of the Original MS. Book afterwards developed into "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". London and New York: Macmillan and Co. 1886. 8vo, contemporary black morocco gilt (most probably a presentation binding) copying the original cloth, triple gilt fillet border on covers, title gilt-stamped on upper cover and along spine, Mock Turtle medallion gilt-stamped on lower cover, upper joint cracked but front endpapers intact at hinge, tiny insect damage to a corner of inner upper cover, FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, ALMOST CERTAINLY TO ALICE'S MOTHER MRS. HENRY GEORGE (LORINA) LIDDELL (1826?-1910), inscribed by Dodgson in purple ink on half-title: "To Her, whose children's smiles fed the narrator's fancy and were his rich reward: from the Author. Xmas 1886", illustrated by the author. Williams/Madan/Green/Crutch, The Lewis Carroll Handbook, 194.
In a letter to Macmillan of 17 December 1886, Dodgson requested "I should be glad to have, as soon as can conveniently be managed, 3 special copies, one in white vellum, one in dark green morocco, and one in purple morocco." This binding is probably a substitute by the bindery for one of these morocco copies since copies had to be bound swiftly so that Dodgson could inscribe them at Christmastime. Although the form of this particular inscription might appear to be unusual for Dodgson, his presentation copy of the same book inscribed to Alice Liddell Hargreaves, now the property of Christ Church College Library, Oxford bears the inscription: "To Her, whose namesake one happy summer's day inspired this story: from the Author. Xmas 1886" (see National Geographic, June 1991, pp. 102-3 for an illustration of the inscription).
Christie's is grateful to acknowledge the assistance of Morton N. Cohen and Justin G. Schiller in the preparation of our cataloguing of this lot.
In a letter to Macmillan of 17 December 1886, Dodgson requested "I should be glad to have, as soon as can conveniently be managed, 3 special copies, one in white vellum, one in dark green morocco, and one in purple morocco." This binding is probably a substitute by the bindery for one of these morocco copies since copies had to be bound swiftly so that Dodgson could inscribe them at Christmastime. Although the form of this particular inscription might appear to be unusual for Dodgson, his presentation copy of the same book inscribed to Alice Liddell Hargreaves, now the property of Christ Church College Library, Oxford bears the inscription: "To Her, whose namesake one happy summer's day inspired this story: from the Author. Xmas 1886" (see National Geographic, June 1991, pp. 102-3 for an illustration of the inscription).
Christie's is grateful to acknowledge the assistance of Morton N. Cohen and Justin G. Schiller in the preparation of our cataloguing of this lot.