Master Humphrey's Clock

London: Chapman and Hall, 1840 and 1841. First Editions. This complete set of three volumes are all in very good+ conditions and bound in their original, ribbed, brown cloth, blind stamped bindings with gilt text and elaborate gilt designs on the spine and with a gilt decorations on each of the front boards in the form of clocks with the hands on each volume pointing to the appropriate volume number. Each volume is a small quarto of 10 1/8 by 6 1/2 inches with light rubbing to the cloth and the heads and heels of the spines and with the cloth worn through on the tips of the boards. Volume II has a small 1/8 by a 1 inch long chip to the cloth at the rear edge of the spine in the title block which barely impacts on the gilt title. The title pages for each volume show a small, oval 1.5 inch wide auctioneer's stamp to the right of the author's name. Save for a few printer's ink stains in the margins and minor foxing to the preliminaries the contents are quite clean and free of much tanning or foxing. The hinges and joints remain tight and storng. None of the three volumes are in dust jackets and presumably as issued. Volume I contains 306 pages of text and is illustrated with a frontispiece and vignettes throughout from wood engravings by George Cattermiole and Hablot Browne ("Phiz"). Volume II is dated 1841 as called for and contains 306 pages and is illustrated as above. Volume III is also dated 1841 and contains 426 pages and is illustrated as above. (Smith: Charles Dickesn in the Original Cloth, 6; Gimbel/Podeschi, A51; Eckel p.69)