DICKENS (CHARLES) The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale, WITH AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED PASTED IN, Chapman and Hall, 1841DICKENS (CHARLES)The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale, FIRST SEPARATE EDITION, WITH AN AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED ("CHARLES DICKENS") PASTED IN, illustrations by George Cattermole and Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"), with dedication leaf to Samuel Rogers but without the preface leaf (neither of which called for by Smith), some light spotting, a few corners slightly creased, contemporary full polished calf gilt by Hayday (stamp on rear free endpaper) for the publisher Chapman and Hall (stamp on front free endpaper), g.e., some minor rubbing and abrasions [Gimbel A59; Smith: I.6A], large 8vo, Chapman and Hall, 1841"DEAR, GENTLE, PATIENT, NOBLE NELL WAS DEAD!" - an autograph quotation, signed and dated on 29 May 1846, on the death of Little Nell, one of the most celebrated passages of all Dickens's novels, and which led to The Old Curiosity Shop being the second highest seller after Pickwick Papers of all the books published in his lifetime. As the parts issues had appeared, "the slowly approaching death of Little Nell held readers in a state of excited anxiety on both sides of the Atlantic for many weeks. Letters came to Dickens imploring him to save her, and grave and normally equable men sobbed uncontrollably when they read that she was dead" (Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens. A Life, 2011). The binding is by James Hayday, from whom Dickens and his publishers, Chapman and Hall, commissioned their special presentation bindings. The binding is near uniform to the copy Dickens inscribed for this friend William Macready in 1841, sold at Christie's, New York, 2 April 2008, lot 7. Provenance: Presentation inscription ("Miss Damant from her cousin George Edgar, 1st January 1844") on front free endpaper; Christie's, 11 July 2018, lot 76.