DICKENS (CHARLES) Master Humphrey's Clock, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE IN ORIGINAL 88 WEEKLY PARTS, Chapman and Hall, April 1840-December 1841DICKENS (CHARLES)Master Humphrey's Clock, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE IN ORIGINAL 88 WEEKLY PARTS, numerous wood-engraved illustrations by George Cattermole and Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"), with preliminaries (frontispiece, title-page and preface) in parts 26, 52 and 88, additional frontispiece and preface leaf in part 87, without "Address to Reader" in part 9, some browning and staining (particularly to gutter/lower edges of parts 47-78), a few small marginal tears, long horizontal tear to p.123/124 of part 11, and p.77/78 of part 33, publisher's white pictorial wrappers, a few wrappers detached, many split at spine, loss to upper cover of part 58, small hole to part 61, small stab holes at inner margin of part 63, approximately 15 parts with minor rodent damage at spine, preserved in blue cloth chemise and slipcase, gilt morocco spine label (several abrasions) [Eckel, pp.67-68; Gimbel A49; Hatton and Cleaver, p.163], 8vo, Chapman and Hall, April 1840-December 1841THE RAREST ISSUE, IN 88 ORIGINAL WEEKLY PARTS, Eckel noting that "Of the four issues the weekly one is difficult to obtain in clean condition". Dickens wrote in the preface that the intention in issuing a collection of stories and sketches was "to shorten the intervals of communication between himself and his readers... to knit more closely the present relations they had held for Forty Months". Due to poor sales of the early issues, Dickens altered the format of the periodical to make it a framework for his two novels, The Old Curiosity Shop, and Barnaby Rudge.Provenance: M. Cartwright, pencil name on part 30; James Kingsford, name on parts 32 and 62; J.B. Wright, name on part 36; Kenyon Starling, bookplate; Christie's New York, William E. Self Family Collection, Part I. The Kenyon Starling Library of Charles Dickens, 2 April 2008, lot 71.