20 parts in 19, 8vo. Etched frontispiece by Maclise, 39 plates by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). (Some light toning and occasional spotting, slight marginal chipping not affecting text or image.) Original green pictorial printed wrappers, uncut and 2 parts unopened (most spines repaired, some minor soiling and toning, slight chipping to extremities with small repairs to the outer corners of part I upper wrapper); slipcase. Provenance: Various signatures or initials to a few parts; Mortimer L. Schiff (morocco  bookplate in part 1, p.1 of the Advertiser); Thomas Hatton, Bibliographer of Charles Dickens (annotations, see below).

THE THOMAS HATTON COPY, WITH ANNOTATIONS BY HIM, as was his custom on certain advertisements and plates, in pencil as follows in part 6: to the rear wrapper: "No. 920 - clean and perfect;" "6" and "C" on plate 11 verso; on the final page of text (p. 192): "CNP . TH." (where "CNP" means "clean and perfect.")

FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL MONTHLY PARTS, FIRST ISSUE, with “visiter” for “sister” in part 4 (p.123, line 17); and “latter” for “letter” in part 5 (p.160, 6 lines up). NEARLY COMPLETE WITH ALL TEXT, PLATES, WRAPPERS, SLIPS, AND ADVERTISEMENTS as called for in Hatton & Cleaver and in the first state, except for the following: pp.3-4 and 9-10 are lacking in the front advertisements of part 2; plate 16 in part 8 is Hatton and Cleaver's plate 3 with "in" absent from the caption; parts 2, 3, and 8 each lack one advertisement, and the color specimen wafers are not present in "Hill's Seal Wafers" in part 19/20; the inside front wrapper of part 6 ends with the word "Demerara" and is not in the first state. Eckel, pp. 64-66; Hatton & Cleaver, pp. 131-160.

[With:] A collection of approximately 325 engraved plates by Hablot Knight Browne (“Phiz”) printed in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby in parts. Approximately 97 plates (of the 235) in wrappers labeled "Spare." (Some staining, toning, and spotting, most with chipping, a few with repairs.) Plates include examples of all 129 varieties enumerated by Hatton and Cleaver in their bibliography of the work. [Laid in:] HATTON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Thomas Hatton"), to William H. Collis. Leicester, England, 3 October 1933. 2 pages, 4to, on personal letterhead, in ink with a few emendations in red crayon. Regarding bibliographical points in the Nicholas Nickleby plates and thanking Collis for lending the plates to him.