BIB_ID
451205
Accession number
MA 23873
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870, author.
Display Date
London, England, 1844
Credit line
Purchased for The Dannie and Hettie Heineman Collection as the gift of the Heineman Foundation, 2024.
Description
1 item (42 pages) ; 19.2 x 16 cm
Notes
Inventory was completed before May 27, 1844, in preparation to rent out the property to Mrs. Sophie Onslow while Dickens and his family were living in Italy.
Written in a small exercise book, with thirty-five pages in Charles Dickens' hand and seven pages in his wife Catherine Dickens' hand. A few entries have been altered in pencil by another hand, possibly when the inventory was checked at the end of the tenant's stay. One blank leaf at end. Documents Dicken's library within a year of the composition of A Christmas Carol.
Previously housed in a green custom box. Box removed and retained in 2024.
Written in a small exercise book, with thirty-five pages in Charles Dickens' hand and seven pages in his wife Catherine Dickens' hand. A few entries have been altered in pencil by another hand, possibly when the inventory was checked at the end of the tenant's stay. One blank leaf at end. Documents Dicken's library within a year of the composition of A Christmas Carol.
Previously housed in a green custom box. Box removed and retained in 2024.
Provenance
Major Philip Dickens (1887-1964); Mrs. Katherine Parrish; Sotheby's London, 24 & 25 July 1978, vol. II, lot 368, 'Property of members of the Philip Dickens family'; purchased post-sale by the Morgan from Christie's, December 2023.
Summary
Autograph manuscript inventory of the library and contents of 1 Devonshire Terrace, where the Dickens family lived from 1839 to 1851, arranged by room: Entrance Hall, Library, Dining Room, Dressing Room, Staircase, First Landing, Best Bedroom, Drawing Room, Second Bedroom, Second Landing, Day Nursery, Night Nursery, Women's Bedroom, Attic, Kitchen, Store Room, Butler's Pantry; then by item: China, Glass, Miscellaneous, and Kitchen Utensils; then the Inventory of Books, and a short inventory of the Garden. The library catalogue lists many of Dickens' own books, some in foreign editions, as well as many other works of British literature.
Catalog link
Department