Q: Dear Sir, I am hoping you can help me with a Henry Altemus Company edition of Abbe Constantin. There is no publication date inside the book and I am trying to get an idea of the age and value of the book and if you could supply the date it would be a help. A photo is attached.
A: Your book is part of the Vademecum Series. It is a reprint and thus has only nominal value.
It was published in 1907.
Although Format 2 of this series was only published between 1898 and 1902 many of the titles had a number of different variant covers.
Generally the books can be dated by reviewing the ads in the back of the book, the endpapers and the color of the lettering.
Today I am adding a new cover picture for book #48 Mary Queen of Scots by Jacob Abbott. This book was first published by Henry Altemus Company in 1900.
The two earliest books have the gold gilt lettering on the front cover and green end papers. They both have back ads “c”. See: http://henryaltemus.com/series/series202F2.htm
The only things that distinguish the two books are the location of the author’s name on the front cover and the spine lettering. One book has gold spine lettering while the other has silver lettering.
Since the later Queen of Scots in this format have silver spine lettering, it is presumed the the earlier 1900 book has the gold spine lettering while the later 1900 book has the silver spine lettering. Also the later “Mary’s” in this format have the author’s name in the same place on the cover as the silver spine book. The later book has red lettering on the cover.
Between 1918 and 1920 the books of this series had either red or yellow lettering. It is presumed that the lettering was changed to a darker color thereafter because the yellow tended to fade and make it impossible to read the title. This is unproven however. Here is an example of Book #8 with the earlier yellow lettering and the later dark blue/black lettering.
Here is another variant cover for this series. It was published in 1929. As can be seen, the paste-on encompasses the entire front cover as opposed to only a part of the cover. The larger paste-on matches the dust jacket. See below.
See the more common cover shown next to the 1929 book.
Don’ts for Boys by An Old Boy
Here is a new picture of this book for the data base. See: http://henryaltemus.com/images/NS_45.htm
The ads in the back indicate that this is an early edition.
Format 5 of the Divinity Classics Series (See: http://henryaltemus.com/series/series77.htm ) has a decorative pattern on the left sided cover vellum. I have seen several background colors with different decoration colors. Here is new one for the data base.
Q: would appreciate any info you might have (Romance of a Poor Young Man)
A: For information on your book look here: Beauxarts Series
It was published between 1899-1901.
It is a reprint.
Q: I have a 1897 Black Beauty- The Autobiography of a Horse by Anna Sewell with Fifty illustrations. Copyright 1897 by Henry Altemus. Hard back book. Signed by a Harold Sliward in 1906. Printed by Altemus’ Young People’s Library. I wanted to find more information on it and when I looked on your website of the books you had I did not see this year nor the cover. I’m attaching pictures for you to see. If you have any info on this book I would surely appreciate it.
A: Match the spine to your spine here: http://henryaltemus.com/ypl/index.htm
Then you can date your book easily with the flowchart shown for dating. This book is shown in the data base.
Of course, your book is a post-1900. The copyright is different than the year published in this instance.
Q: To whom it may concern:
What can you tell me about this book (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin)? Is it part of a series? When was the first edition published? How is that indicated? How many copies were printed?
A: Your book was published in 1895 as part of the Vademecum Series. See: http://henryaltemus.com/series/series179.htm
The Altemus edition is a reprint. I am unaware of how many copies Altemus published but this book is fairly common.
Q: I just purchased this version of the A Christmas Carol. Would appreciate anything you can tell me about it: date published, illustrator, etc.
I have been collecting The Carol for my three children for over 30 years and was very excited to get this edition and learn that Altemus published many versions of The Carol.
Which was the most beautiful edition that Altemus published? Any photos of that edition?
A: Your version can be found here: http://henryaltemus.com/series/series38.htm
This format originally had a dust jacket which matched the book.
Most of the Altemus Carol’s are nice but nothing unbelievable.
There are literally hundreds of different covers.
For a look, see: http://henryaltemus.com/search/titlesearch.php?q=christmas+Carol&Submit=Go
If I was picking one I would go with either this one http://henryaltemus.com/series/series65.htm because it had a nice piece of holly attached to it and it came in a nice floral box or this one http://henryaltemus.com/series/series58.htm
This title was published in many of the publisher’s series and they had interesting different covers every year. Look at the series’ pictures when using the index.
Virtually every Altemus version of the “Carol” has a representative cover picture on the site.