First edition, second state, with the “Stave One” chapter heading. Octavo. In the original publisher’s red cloth, lettered and decorated in gilt to the spine and upper cover, also decorated in blind. All edges gilt. Hand-coloured frontispiece, and three further hand coloured plates, smaller engravings in black and white. Title-page printed in red and blue, terminal page of ads.
 
An uncommonly fine copy, the cloth generally very clean, with few signs of wear.
 
A fine, bright copy of the first edition of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. The first edition of A Christmas Carol can be divided into two textual states, distinguished by whether the first part of the book is titled “Stave I” or “Stave One”. This copy belongs to the second (corrected) state, with “Stave One”. The production of the book, much interfered with by the author, means that on publication day, both states of the text, as well as slight variants of the binding, endpapers, and title pages, were available for purchase.