The Christmas Books. [A Christmas Carol; The Chimes; The Cricket on the Hearth; The Battle of Life; The Haunted Man.] DICKENS, Charles; BROCK, Charles Edmund (illus.).

First Brock editions, in a bright example of the publisher's deluxe gilt vellum bindings. This attractive set is an excellent example of the publisher's long and successful collaboration with Brock, a leading illustrator of 19th-century literature. Charles Edmund Brock (1870-1938) was particularly attracted to the design and fashion of the Regency and early Victorian eras and gathered period artefacts on which he modelled his art, which was notable for its historical accuracy. He rose to prominence in 1898, when he provided a series of watercolour drawings for a set of Jane Austen's novels published by J. M. Dent. Dent later commissioned Brock to contribute to their new editions of Dickens's Christmas books, since his "benign drawings would most accord with the words" (Houfe, p. 196). A Christmas Carol, first published in 1843, proved so popular that Dickens produced four further small festive books in subsequent years. The final book, The Haunted Man, was published in 1848. Simon Houfe, The Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists, 1800-1914, 1981. 5 vols, octavo. Colour frontispieces with tissue guards, 7 plates after watercolours in each volume, illustrated title pages printed in red and black, illustrations to text, all by Charles Edmund Brock. Original vellum, spines and front covers lettered and elaborately decorated in gilt, top edges gilt, fore and bottom edges uncut, red bookmarker in each volume. Neat ownership inscriptions dated 1949 to front free endpapers; modern bookplate of one W. H. Paul in each volume. Covers slightly bowed, as usual, a few rear covers lightly soiled, occasional foxing, mostly to endpapers, gilt bright. A near-fine set.