COCKTON (Henry). The Love match, By Henry Cockton, Author of Valentine Vox, Sylvester Sound, &c. Third edition. With portrait of the author, and twenty-two Etchings on steel by Onwhyn. W.M. Clark, 17, Warwick-lane, Paternoster-row, 1849. Demy 8vo; half-title not called for; steel-engraved frontispiece by J. Welton after J.W. Childe, and integral wood-engraved title-page, precede letterpress title-page; twenty-two steel-engraved plates; pp.[viii (including wood-engraved title)]+373+[i (blank)]; cherry red straight grain fine-morocco cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, lettered and pictorially blocked gilt on spine. Covers a little dull and marked, and neat restorations to cloth at head and tail of spine; a little light dusting passim; in general a nice copy.

First issued in 1845 with a letterpress title-page reading: ‘The Love Match, designed to illustrate the various conflicting influences which sprang from the union of Mr. and Mrs. Todd', this extended title being here present only on the engraved title-page. As advertised on some of the spines, the book was originally issued in twenty-four weekly numbers, twelve priced at one penny, and twelve each with two engravings at twopence each. A ‘handsome embossed case' was advertised on the spines of the later numbers as available for one shilling; and the book was also advertised as available in publisher's cloth at five shillings. The present copy would appear to be in fact a later issue of the first edition, being made up in part from left over original numbers, and in part from a reprint of numbers made from stereo plates, the title-page alone being reset. The case is a half inch taller than the sheets, which have here been trimmed at all edges, suggesting that it may be an unsold case prepared for purchasers of the original - and untrimmed - parts. A difficult Cockton title in any of its forms. Block, p.42; not in Sadleir or Summers; Wolff, 1296, describing his copy of the 1845 issue, which is in a similar original cloth, as ‘Bound from the original ten 32-page parts with a final part of sixty-four pp including the prelims.' We find this curious: not only does it disagree with the collation of the present copy, in which the parts are numbered 1-24, and with the advertisements, but Clark's normal mode of issue was in weekly penny numbers. We suspect that Wolff, realising his copy had been issued serially, merely counted the plates and divided them into the number of the pages. Why he thought the last number was a double one we are unable to explain, except that this would have been normal practice for most publishers. The prelims., however, were indeed issued with the final part, as usual. Wolff records the prelims. in his copy as consisting of eight leaves as here, but the pagination as being [viii]+[376], BB4 being the List of Illustrations. Gathering BB in the present copy has only three leaves, the List of Illustrations having here been transferred into the prelims., so that our copy has in total one leaf less than his. If Wolff's collation is correct, we are unable to guess what the extra leaf in his copy may have been.

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