Q: I came across this pretty little book at an estate sale. I only paid $3.00 for it, and plan to keep it for my personal collection of older, interesting looking books.

The pages are all connected to the spine, and the cover and pages are all intact and in remarkable condition. I think this book just sat on a shelf most of it’s life.

I was wondering what you could tell me about it? Publication date and value are my big questions. I supposed anything else you could tell me would just be fun to know!

It’s Hawthorne’s Twice Told Tales. The outside spine says the title and then “Altemus” at the bottom. I’ve included a shot of one of the inside pages, which is located at the end of the book indicating it was published by Henry Altemus’ Publications in Philadelphia, PA.

A: Hello,
Your book is part of the Beauxarts Series and was published in 1898. It originally came within a labeled box.

This title is a reprint as are all of the books in this series.

$3.00 is probably a fair price.