[Rarebooks] Offering: TOM SAWYER 1st edition, 1st issue, Gilt edges

[Michael John Thompson]

CLEMENS, Samuel Langhorne (1835-1910).

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER by Mark Twain (pseudonym).

Hartford, Conn.... The American Publishing Company. 1876.

First American edition, first issue, deluxe issue. Octavo, original 
full blue cloth decorated in black and gold, gilt edges, 
Illustrated.  With all the first issue points as called for: triple 
flyleaves of laid paper, text printed on wove paper, Front matter 
paged (i) - xvi. Half-title p. (i). Pp (ii-iii) blank. Frontispiece, 
p. (iv). Pp (17) - (275), blank p. (276), (4) pp ads at rear. "THE" 
on the half-title is approximately 1/16" (in later issues it measures 
1/8"). Of the first edition, copies with gilt edges are about 10 
times rarer than plain edges. The first copies (100, cloth) were 
received from the binder on Dec 8, 1876. By January 8, 1877, a total 
of 9,879 copies had been received as follows: 7,431 in cloth, 748 in 
cloth with gilt edges, 1,500 in calf, and 200 in half morocco.

A very rare issue of the first edition. The head and the foot of the 
spine neatly repaired (by Gray's of Cambridge) at some point in the 
past (according to an inserted note). The endpapers, while a matching 
peach as required, do appear to have been replaced. The outer margin 
& lower corner of p (xv), which had worked loose, are very slightly 
defective. A few minor interior stains. The covers are slightly 
dulled, there is a small scuff on the front panel. Overall, a very good copy.

http://www.mjtbooks.com/images/books/5647.jpg


$8,500.00 US, trade discount allowed

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Michael John Thompson
ABAC / ILAB
5275 Jerow Road
Hornby Island, BC
Canada V0R 1Z0
250-335-1182

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