Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - with - Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There - Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] 1867 - Macmillan and Co., London - Third Edition (a year after the First Edition) “Whilst Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass were intended for children “fresh from God’s hand”, it is equally enthralling and delightfully magical for adults as they follow Alice on her vibrant adventures escorted by her famous companions. Who can possibly not have been carried away into the fantastically crazy world of the Mad Hatter? Or never have heard of Tweedledee and Tweedledum? Who cannot have been struck by Carroll’s love for sophisticated play with words?.” - Stephanie Chan.

A finely bound pair, in which Tenniel’s illustrations, 42 in
Wonderland and 50 in Looking-Glass, perfectly capture Alice’s upside-down world and are considered to be his finest and most enduring achievement.
  “Duckworth and I made an expedition up the river to Godstow with the three Liddells: we had tea on the bank there…On which occasion, I told them the fairy-tale of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground…” recalls Lewis Carroll. And thus was born one of the greatest children’s classics of all time…

The story ultimately became
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There and was first published in London in 1866 The original manuscript that Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) presented to Alice Liddell – the inspiration behind perhaps the most famous and best-loved children’s fairytale – on 26th November 1864 now resides in the British Library, gifted to the nation after the war in 1948 by a group of Anglophile American book collectors.

Tenniel’s illustrations perfectly capture Alice’s upside-down world and are considered to be his finest and most enduring achievement. They were an integral part of creating Alice’s fairytale world and are without doubt some of the best-known images, indelibly etched into the memory of countless children. In
The Looking Glass, Tenniel gave Alice a hairband, now widely known as an ‘Alice band.’ Tenniel and Carroll quarrelled over the illustrations, most famously over the use of a model for Alice and the working relationship was further strained. Tenniel’s original drawings were reproduced by the Dalziel Brothers as woodcuts.’

(Written for Lok Man Rare Books by Stephanie Chan - October 2008)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - third edition (“eighth thousand”); Through the Looking Glass - first edition, first state of p. 21, with the misprint “wade” for ‘wabe’ in the second line of the poem ‘Jabberwocky’. Through the Looking-Glass was released on December 27,1871, despite the publication date on the title page being given as 1872.

References:
Printing and the Mind of Man, 532. Bleiler; Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Book Collector No.271, 'The Great Illustrators'. 'Alice' listed in BBC's Big Read (200 Best Novels) [2003]. Williams, Madan, Green and Crutch, The Lewis Carroll Handbook, 46c & 84.

Two small octavo volumes (binding size 118.3x12.7cm), pp. [2] [12] 192 [2] [2]; [2] [12] 224 [1] [1 (publisher’s ads)] [4] [2].
  Elegantly bound by Bayntun-Riviere in full scarlet morocco, single gilt filet borders to panels and spine compartments, upper covers with gilt block of the White Rabbit to Wonderland and the Red Queen to Looking-Glass , spines in six compartments, lettered in gilt with rabbit and playing card centre tools, hand-marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, original cloth covers and spines bound in at rear.   Condition: Fine in fine bindings   Ref: 111683   Price: HK$ 60,000