Dealings with the Firm Dombey and Son, Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation
Price: $1,250.00
Browne, H. K. Hard Cover. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1848. First Edition. Very Good.
Illustrated with 40 plates by H.K. Browne ("Phiz"), including a frontispiece and vignette title page. First edition, with all of the textual first issue points called for by Smith except that there are dots on the tops of the i's in "occasions" p. 232, 12 lines up and "remains" p. 253, 6 lines up; in a variant of first issue binding ("LONDON 1848" to foot of spine), bound from the original parts; lacking half-title page. Publisher's olive green fine-diaper cloth, with spine and borders of front and rear boards elaborately decorated in blind, gilt lettering to spine, and pale yellow coated endpapers. Very good, with light toning to spine, light wear to foot of spine ("LONDON 1848" mostly faded), a gentle lean to spine, corners bumped and rubbed to boards, some offsetting to endpapers, penciled ownership signature to verso of frontispiece, light soiling to p. (x), and a small piece torn from the plate facing p. 325 (illustration only very minimally affected). Overall, a sturdy copy, with plates free from the usual spotting. Housed in a green custom clamshell box. Smith I, 8. Dombey and Son is a novel about the wealthy Dombey family who owns the titular shipping company Dombey and Son. The text follows Paul Dombey, Sr., who has high hopes for his sickly son, Paul, as a future business partner, and neglects his healthy daughter, Florence. Throughout the text, Dickens explores the relationship between one's personal and professional lives as well as the relationship between parent and child. Considered the book that solidified his reputation as a renowned author, Dombey and Son is regarded as Dickens' first artistically mature work, with carefully plotted serial installments and a preplanned outline for the entire work. Dickens wrote this book in various locations including Switzerland, England, and France. Dombey and Son contains 40 illustrations by Browne, published and signed under the pseudonym Phiz, including two plates that were etched as well as drawn by the illustrator. Dombey and Son also marked a successful experiment in new illustration techniques; it contains the first published example of a "dark plate," appropriately titled "On the Dark Road," "which was created by a machine process that tinted the etched plate and heightened its black-and-white contrast." Additionally, Dombey and Son is the first example of Browne's horizontal illustrations for Dickens' novels. He would continue to use both of these techniques in Dickens' next novel, David Copperfield. Item #CD184
