Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Autograph manuscript inventory of the library and contents of 1 Devonshire Terrace, [before 27 May 1844]
Approximately 35 pages in autograph plus approximately 7 pages in the hand of Catherine Dickens, on 21 leaves, 192 x 160mm, plus one blank, in an exercise book, marbled paper covers; solander case. Provenance: Major Philip Dickens (1887-1964) – Mrs Katherine Parrish (in the Pilgrim Edition, 1977 – see below) – Sotheby's London, 24 & 25 July 1978, Vol. II, lot 368, 'Property of members of the Philip Dickens family'.

The inventory of Dickens's house at Devonshire Terrace. Dickens and his family moved from Doughty Street at the end of 1839 to the much grander 1 Devonshire Terrace, its size and location (near Regent's Park) reflecting his increasing success and financial security. They were to remain there until November 1851: this was the period of composition of, mostly notably, A Christmas Carol, Dombey & Son and David Copperfield. The present inventory was taken approximately at the half-way point of their residence: its occasion was Dickens's decision in July 1844 to move with his entire household to live for a year in Italy, based in Genoa, 'partly as an economy (it was cheaper to live in the splendid Palazzo Peschiere in Genoa than in Devonshire Terrace), partly to escape the increasing demands on his time at home, and partly for the stimulus of new scenes' (ODNB). 'The inventory was completed by 27 May 1844 when the agreement with [incoming tenant] Mrs Sophie Onslow was signed. It is written in a common exercise book, on both sides of the page ... A few entries have subsequently been altered in pencil by another hand, possibly when the inventory was checked at the end of the tenancy' (Pilgrim Edition, 4, 704).

The inventory begins with the furniture and pictures in the Entrance Hall, proceeding to the Library, the Dining Room, Dressing Room, Staircase, First Landing, Best Bedroom, Drawing Room, Second Bedroom, Second Landing, Day Nursery, Night Nursery, Women's Bed room, Attic, Kitchen, Store room, Butler's Pantry, China (4½ pages), Glass, Miscellaneous, Kitchen Utensils (4½ pages), and then the 'Inventory of the Books' (18 pages): the latter include a number of copies of Dickens's own works, including Pickwick Papers, Sketches by Boz, Oliver Twist and Barnaby Rudge, some in multiple copies, including foreign editions. Dickens's great predecessors are represented, including the works of Richardson, Sterne, Fielding, Goldsmith, Swift and Scott, as well as Robinson Crusoe and Don Quixote. The list concludes with a brief inventory of the Garden.

The incoming tenant, Mrs Sophia Onslow, described by Dickens as a 'most desirable Widow', took the house for one year from 28 May 1844 for £300; according to Forster, the arrangement was 'apparently very promising, but in the result less satisfactory. His house was let to not very careful people' (quoted in Pilgrim Edition, 4, 131).

Published in the Pilgrim Edition of The Letters of Charles Dickens, vol. 4 (1977), 704-726.