Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. [And:] Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There

London: Macmillan and Co., 1870. Presented by Lewis Carroll to the Crofts Sisters"
An Early and Documented Family Association Set of Alice and Looking-Glass

CARROLL, Lewis. (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. With forty-two illustrations by John Tenniel. Twenty-third thousand. London: Macmillan and Co., 1870.
[with:]
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. With fifty illustrations by John Tenniel. Twenty-sixth thousand. London: Macmillan & Co., 1872.

Both volumes inscribed by Lewis Carroll: Alice: "Mary Dowell Crofts / from the Author / 1870."
Looking-Glass: "Florence Crofts / from the Author / March 9, 1873."

Two volumes. Small octavo (7 x 4 7/8 inches; 178 x 98 mm.).

Uniformly bound ca. 1940 by Bayntun-Rivière in full red morocco, covers ruled in gilt, each upper cover with a central gilt vignette (White Rabbit; Red Queen), spines with five raised bands, compartments richly tooled in gilt with Carrollian emblems, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. A fine and attractive uniform set.

Provenance & Association:

A remarkable and fully identified presentation set, inscribed by Carroll to Mary Dowell Crofts and her sister Florence Crofts, daughters of J. D. M. Crofts. The Crofts family is well documented within Carroll's circle. As recorded in The Letters of Lewis Carroll, Dodgson: formed a friendship with the family in the 1860s and visited them at Sevenoaks and Hastings. Lewis Carroll photographed Mary Crofts and maintained an ongoing correspondence with the sisters Mary and Forence.

A letter dated April 12, 1873, addressed to Mary Crofts (only weeks after the inscription in Looking-Glass), confirms active contact at precisely the period of presentation. The use of "Dowell" in Mary's inscription corresponds exactly with her maternal family name (née Dowell), further confirming the identification.

Significance

This set represents:
A paired Carroll presentation to members of the same family
A documented and traceable association within his known social circle
A chronologically coherent grouping (1870-1873)
A rare instance where inscriptions, biography, and correspondence align
Such copies transcend ordinary signed books and enter the category of association copies of the highest order.

While early Macmillan printings of Alice and Looking-Glass are not uncommon, presentation copies by Carroll are rare, and paired family inscriptions are exceptionally uncommon.

Williams, Madan & Green 46d & 84a.