Carroll, Lewis

EIGHT OR NINE WISE WORDS ABOUT LETTER-WRITING. [with] THE WONDERLAND POSTAGE-STAMP CASE.

Two items: a pamphlet and a pictorial stamp case with inner folder. 1. Pp. 40 (including advertisements and wrappers); post 24mo; self-wrappers, stitched, faintly soiled, with pencilled date [1907] at foot of upper wrapper; 2. Pictorial card stamp holder with 12 sewn pockets for stamps on the reverse; post 24mo; within a cloth backed pictorial paper sleeve [stamp case]; sleeve and folder both slightly browned; Emberlin and Son, Oxford, 1890[1907?]. Later printings. See Lewis Carroll Handbook 223, (pp. 170-173): *Lacking the pink outer envelope. 'The Wise Words are connected with, and in some sense an advertisement of a Wonderland Stamp Case' [p. 170]. This copy of Wise Words is dated 1890, but the advertisements refer to works published later (such as Feeding the Mind, 1907). The Stamp case is the second edition, with the publisher's name and address above the image of the Cheshire Cat and 'Post free 13d' before the price below the cat. Lewis Carroll is said to have invented the Stamp Case in 1888. 'The case and cover each bear two coloured pictures of Alice and are so arranged as to form two "Surprises", for on pulling out the case, the cover picture of Alice holding the Duchess's baby turns into Alice holding the pig, and on the other side the Cheshire Cat, whole and entire, turns into the well-known residual smile of that quadruped' [Lewis Carroll Handbook, p. 171]. Inside the stamp case are four Royal Mail postage stamps within a clear envelope. Issued for the 1979 Year of the Child, the stamps celebrate classic children's books, including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Item #182995

Price: $750.00