8vo. Half-title printed in blue, title-page printed in red and blue with verso printed in blue, hand-colored steel-engraved frontispiece and 3 hand-colored steel-engraved plates by John Leech, 4 wood-engravings in the text by W.J. Linton after Leech. (Staining to title-page, scattered spotting and staining throughout.) Original dark blue cloth, decorated in blind and in gilt (spine leaned, some small splits at ends, fore-corners lightly worn). Provenance: N.M. Perkins (penciled gift inscription on front free endpaper to); F.N. Knapp.

EARLY AMERICAN EDITION. While this edition has traditionally been considered the first American edition, Walter E. Smith, in his recent bibliography of the first American editions of Charles Dickens, now designates that to the New York Harper & Brothers edition. According to newspaper ads examined by Smith, their edition was published on January 24, 1844, while the Carey & Hart edition was published later that year, on April 19. Smith, pp.32-36.