Q: Hi! My grandmother just gave me this book (Black Beauty by Anna Sewell) and I was wondering if you could tell me when this book was published. It has an inscription inside that says 1903 so I know it is at least that old. I’m sorry I don’t know what the dust jacket looked like, my grandmother didn’t have it. Thank you so much!!

A: It is part of the Vademecum Series.

It was published in 1898 and came within a labeled box. All of the books in this series are reprints. In 1898 there were numerous color covers with the same underlying format. See below for some examples.