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BLEAK HOUSE

by DICKENS, Charles; Illustrated by BROWNE, Halbot K. "Phiz"; STEPHENSON, Heathfield Harman; [CRICKET]:

$1,029 · Offered by Biblio

First edition · Signed

London: Bradbury and Evans. 1853. First edition in book form. First edition in book form. Late 20th century full burgundy morocco with decorative morocco onlay, titles in gilt to the spine. All edges with contemporary marbling. Modern marbled endpapers. Frontispiece, title page vignette and 38 full-page illustrations by H.K. Browne. A very good copy indeed, the binding square and firm. The contents with the inevitable darkening of the plate edges with some offsetting to the opposite pages are otherwise clean throughout. The original blank front endpaper has the ownership inscription of the famous English cricketer Heathfield H. Stephenson, dated 1894. A curious and appealing cricketing association copy. With all first issue points within the text present. (Smith, part I: 6b) Charles Dickens works are among the most celebrated in the English literary canon but cricket fans might argue that his greatest achievement was inadvertently triggering the long international cricket rivalry of England and Australia. The first ever England vs Australia tour was originally conceived as a Victorian PR stunt and sponsorship opportunity by two entrepreneurial Melbourne-based businessmen, the wine merchants Felix William Spiers and Christopher Pond. Having failed to persuade Charles Dickens to conduct a lecture tour of Australia, the two Englishmen turned their attention to cricket. The sport s popularity was growing in Australia, so Spiers and Pond invited a team of leading English cricketer

  • Publisher: London: Bradbury and Evans. 1853
  • Edition: First Edition
  • Binding: unknown

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