EXTRAORDINARY GAZETTE. Speech of His Mightiness on Opening the Second Number of Bentley's Miscellany, Edited by "Boz."

[London]: [Richard Bentley], 1837. 1st printing (Eckel, pp. 173 - 174; Gimbel E-33). Printed self-wrappers. Housed in a custom brown quarter leather chemise, gilt stamped lettering to front board. Some modest thumbing & soiling, and evidence of being disbound from another volume. Unobtrusive old paper repair along spine fold. Withal, a VG copy, in a VG chemise, which shows wear & rubbing along the spine.. 1 printed sheet, folded once vertically forming a 4 pp leaflet. Masthead vignette, by Phiz, depicting a young Dickens standing next to a plump porter carrying a large consignment of Bentley's Miscellany. According to Matz, Dickens in Cartoon & Caricature, the scene engraved by John Thompson. 8-11/16" x 5-13/16"

Here Dickens, the new editor for the Miscellany, "paraphrased the average Royal speech, and by the use of bombastic and ponderous expressions announced the coming of 'Oliver Twist.'" [Eckel]. The drawing of Dickens by Phiz the earliest recorded by Wilkins, who compiled Dickens in Cartoon & Caricature [1924]. According to Podeschi, and as is usually the case, the leaflet most likely removed from Bentley's Miscellany Issue III of 1 March 1837, where it had been inserted preceding that issue's Bentley's Advertiser.