Q: YES, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW OLD THIS BOOK (ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND) IS AND MAYBE THE WORTH. IT WAS GIVEN TO MY GRANDMOTHER IN 1902 AS AN AWARD. NOW I HAVE IT.
THANKS FOR ANY INFORMATION YOU CAN GIVE ME.

A: Your book is part of this series http://henryaltemus.com/series/series58.htm.

It was published between 1899- 1902.

The website page above can help you date it exactly.

This book originally came in a labeled box. The Young People’s Library version of Alice is much more commonly seen and generally costs more. But this book is the rarer of the two formats and in my opinion has a much more elegant cover. The cover was designed by the Decorative Designers firm.

It appears to be in nice shape and probably would sell between $10-40.

Q: I have a friend who has a first edition of Lives of the Presidents copyright 1899. Any idea what it might be worth?

A: Your friend’s book is not the first edition of this title. The first edition can be seen here as book #13.
http://henryaltemus.com/series/series202F1.htm

As you can see the cover looks quite different.

Your book is pictured here: http://henryaltemus.com/series/series202F2.htm

The book you sent is a format 2 book whereas the earlier book is a format 1 book.

Without the dust jacket it has nominal value.

Format 2

First Format

Here is a new picture for the database. This is book #54 (Madame Roland). The gold lettering on this book was replaced by red lettering in later versions. See picture below.

#54 Earlier

#54 Later

For more information on Series 202 Format 2, click here

Here is a new picture for the database (Paul: A Herald of the Cross). The new book is the earlier of the two Format 1-#1 books.

The earlier book has gold lettering whereas the later Format 1 book has silver lettering.

Note both books below.

For more information on Series 109, click here

Here is a new picture for the database of Book #10 (Exploration and Adventure in Africa). It is not the first edition but rather a slightly later reprint.
The first edition also shown here has a plain line drawn frontispiece whereas the later edition has a colored glossy frontispiece.

#10 Later

#10 First Edition

For more information on Series 202 Format 1, click here

Here are two examples of Book #5 (Three Little Pigs) in this series. The only obvious difference in the covers is the color of the lettering. Between the beginning of this format in 1917 until 1920 the lettering on the cover was either yellow or red. This is an easy was to instantly determine the date published in certain books of this series.

#5 Early edition

#5 Later edition

For more information on Series 186, click here

Here is a new dust jacket picture for the database.

This book is #12 (The Four Little Pigs That Didn’t Have Any Mother) in this series and originally was published in 1919. The first edition had plain end papers and yellow lettering on the cover.

For more information on Series 186, click here

This 10 book series of small books is identical in format to the Wee Books for Wee Folks Series.

Here is the picture of the dust jacketed book #6 (Puss in Boots). As of this time eight of the ten books in the database are shown with dust jackets.

For more information on Series 188, click here

The 1903-1904 books have been seen with four format variations. Three of them (cloth) have different colored left sided cover vellum. The fourth has a suede cover. Each of the cloth covers have 16 possible flower illustrations for the right side of the cover. The beige cover vellum is more common than the blue or pink.

Below is a 6th cover for the database of the blue vellum format.

For more information on Series 143, click here

Here are two pictures for Series #131 Mother Goose Series – The Sleeping Beauty.

Of interest is the lettering on the cover which was done by the Decorative Designers firm.