Selections FromThe Writings Of John Ruskin 1862, Dickens’ own copy, with the bookplate and library plate of Charles Dickens.
This book was written by John Ruskin, an English author and philosopher of the 19th century, and the book was actually owned by Charles Dickens and was part of his personal library in his country home at Gadshill Place in Kent, England. The book is housed in a slipcase with Dickens’ crest on the cover and Dickens’ own bookplate and his own library plate inside the front cover of the book (on the front paste-down). The bookplate shows a lion laying down (a “lion couchant”) with a cross in one paw and “Charles Dickens” on the plate, and the library plate reads “From the Library of Charles Dickens, Gadshill Place, June 1870”. The book comes in a slipcase which reads “Charles Dickens’ Copy” on the spine and shows the crest of Dickens with a maroon background, a gilt lion and cross, and the initials “CD” inside a gilt circle on the cover;
in heraldry, the star-like cross is called a patoncy, and these all show the book actually belonged to Dickens.
The book title is Selections From The Writings Of John Ruskin, published in London
by Smith Elder in 1862. The book measures 8 1/8 x 5 1/2 in. wide and the slipcase measures 8 1/2 x 6 x 1 5/8 in. wide. The book itself does not have a lot of value, but the value of the book is in the bookplate and library plate of Charles Dickens - the book once sat in his own library, and his bookplate and library plate are hard to find; a similar book with Dickens’ bookplate and library plate sold recently at Sotheby’s in 2019 for £15,000.