A rare sample edition of Lewis Carroll's The Nursery "Alice" will sell as part of PBA Galleries' sale of the Pamela Harer Collection of Rare and Antiquarian Children's Books.
 Just 12 sample copies were sent to America before Carroll decided he didn't like the illustrations |
Selling on November 6 in San Francisco, the book - one of just 12 copies - will auction for an estimated $7,000-10,000.
Lewis Carroll (real name Dodgson) wrote of the idea in his diary in February 1881: "I wrote to Macmillan to suggest a new idea, - a Nursery Edition of Alice with pictures printed in colour."
Just 12 copies were bound and sent to America, and received by publishers on October 29, 1889. However, Carroll rejected the illustrations from Edmund Evans (despite 10,000 sheets being printed) stating that the colours were too bright and gaudy.
As such, there are only a few known sample copies, which have yellow endpapers and no price tags or advertisements. This edition has a pencilled inscription in a child's hand, which claims (erroneously) to be from the author himself - evidence of a crafty young collector trying to enhance the value of their book.
The sale also features a rare book that was used by evangelist missionaries in converting Mohawk children to Christianity, which was first printed in Montreal in 1781.
Also starring is a $7,000-10,00 first edition of Beatrix Potter's The Tailor of Gloucester, which was privately printed on behalf of the author a year before the Frederick Warne edition. It features an altered text to the later edition and an alternative cover illustration.
Paul Fraser Collectibles has a fantastic selection of rare books and manuscripts for sale - the perfect gift for bookworms.
