First edition, first issue of this early Dickens novel. Frontis and 39 plates by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz). This is not a great copy of this work, but will be forgiven as it is a first issue and so still very collectable. Half leather with marbled boards. The spine has gilt decoration. There was a leather lable, but this has been mostly lost. The front board is quite fragile, and is loose (but just holding) to the book. The spine is splitting. Pages are a little darkened and marked throughout. The plates are very darkened, and quite a few are chipped and have had loss restored. Some pages also have minor restoration. Although there are no library marks, a lot of the plates have "Mrs Bedford's Library" written in contemporary hand on the plates. Presumably this was one of the many circulating libraries in England at the time, this one seems to have been located in Brownlow Hill, Liverpool. We have been unable to find further details. All of the following 1st issue points are present: flys for flies p. 245 line 10; visiters for visitors p. 272 line 2; incontestible for incontestable p.297 line 22; suprise for surprise p. 586 line 24; latter has not been corrected to letter on page 160 line 6 from the bottom.; visiter instead of sister on page 123 line 17. These errors were corrected in second and subsequent states. The plates do not have publication details to them. Nicholas Nickleby was Dickens third novel and was issued in monthly installments March 1838 October 1839 before it was published as this single volume.