The posthumous papers of the Pickwick club

First edition illustrated with 43 plates including a frontispiece and title-frontispiece. MCCCXXXVII on title page. 28 plates have captions while the rest have none. Our volume possesses several features attesting to the very first printing: 5 lines at bottom of page 9; p.10 last line, mark between the R and U and M of RUM; Line 29 p. 260: "holding"; p. 341 line 1: L.5 p. 341 Inscriptino; "inbe-licate"; p. 342 line 5: "S. Veller"; p. 432 the F of Posthumous papers of is poorly printed. The engraved title is in second state with Tony Weller's name above the porch, the first state having simply Veller.
Contemporary full brown calf binding. Spine with false raised bands decorated with gilt thick fillets, long tools on the bands and blind wavy patterns on the spine. Red calf title label: Pickwick. Wide blind ruled frame on boards doubled with a gilt border. Traces of rubbing. Spine slightly faded. As almost always due to the acidity of the paper, the engravings often show browning, notably and often a browned frame in the margin.
The posthumous papers, like all of Dickens's works, first appeared in parts from April 1836 to November 1837, then in volume form. Written by a 24-year-old Dickens, the work propelled the writer into a glory from which he never descended. The reception of the work was immense and very popular; it was claimed at the time that only the Bible and the works of Shakespeare exceeded The posthumous papers in circulation.