Sold for $1,524

Hartford Conn: The American Publishing Company, 1899-1903. In 23 volumes. Autograph Edition, #122/512 copies, signed by Twain: "SL. Clemens / (Mark Twain)". 8vo. Illustrated with frontispiece and engraved title-page (designed by Tiffany & Co., and etched by W.H.W. Bicknell), and numerous plates and photogravures throughout set, each with captioned tissue guards. With 18 plates signed by the artist, including Peter Newell, T. de Thulstrup, Frederick Dielman, B. West Clinedinst, E.H. Garrett, J.G. Brown, Karl Gerhardt, Charles Noel Flagg, E.W. Kemble, F.M. Senior, F.T. Merrill, Dan Beard, Francis V. DuMond, F.B. Opper, A.B. Frost, J. Allen St. John, C.D. Weldon, and F. Luis Mora. First volume signed by Brander Matthews, author of the introduction, Biographical Criticism; Volume X signed by Chase Dudley Warner, Twain's friend and co-author of The Gilded Age. Three-quarter green morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, stamped in gilt, boards and spines unevenly browned; front board of Vol. VII detached but holding; Volume XXII spine and rear board starting; front board of Vol. XV detached but holding; Volume XXIII front board detached but holding; upper spine of Vol. II starting; repairs to joints and spine of Vol. VI; spine ends variously chipped; scratch along spine of Vol. XIX; joints and extremities rubbed and lightly to moderately worn; some spines dry; top edges gilt, other edges untrimmed; matching marbled endpapers. BAL 3456

Scarce signed set of the collected writings of Mark Twain. The first 23 volumes were published by The American Publishing Company, and later, in 1907, Harper & Brothers published volumes 24 and 25, "as an accommodation to purchasers of earlier volumes with a view to making their sets uniform."