First edition. Publisher's buff pictorial cloth blocked in black in original gray-blue dustwrapper printed in black. All edges gilt. Nine wonderful black and white illustrations by Henry Halliday. A fine copy, with the pale cloth exceptionally clean, having been protected by the dustwrapper; some offsetting to frontispiece and title page from the tissue guard, in a near fine dustwrapper, exceptionally clean and bright with just a little wear to the corners and head of the spine. An exceptional copy.

The magnificent Richard Manney copy of Carroll's "most magnificent literary creation after the Alice books" (Cohen, p. 43), one of the finest extant examples of this early and important dustwrapper.
Whilst a few earlier examples of dustwrappers are known, these are for the most part either designed as wrapping or entirely or substantially plain. In this case, Carroll, who habitually took an obsessive interest in the production of his books, specifically required the presence and design of the dustwrapper.
"When you have got the lengthways title cut for the back [spine] of the book, I want you to print it (or the same words in ordinary type, which would do just as well) on the paper wrapper... The advantage will be that it can stand in bookstalls without being taken out of paper, & so can be kept in cleaner & more saleable condition." - letter dated 6 February 1876 to Alexander Macmillan (now in The Rosenbach Museum).
Still being regarded by booksellers and readers alike as temporary packaging, dustwrappers of this period were invariably discarded by all but the most fastidious owners and even then, the poor quality of paper used meant the wrapper would soon decay to the point of obsolescence. Consequently of the 10,000 copies published less than a dozen copies in dustwrapper are known today (Godburn - Nineteenth Century Dust-Jackets), most showing heavy wear or repair.
The dustwrapper reproduces the title page on the front cover with the addition of the size and price and the terminal advert leaf, containing reviews of Alice in Wonderland on the rear panel, both contained within a decorative border. The Snark jacket has been incorrectly credited with being the first to contain advertising (jacket adverts had been appearing from the mid 1860s), but it may very well be the first to contain reviews, the precursor to the modern-day blurb.

Richard Manney (neat bookplate to front pastedown, his sale 1991, lot 108).

Williams-Madan-Green 115

Stock ID: 36154