Q: Hello, I have a copy of The Last Letters of Elia but cannot find a publication date. Can you please help? There are covers and it looks lick blue roses intertwined on the front cover.

A: Your book is part of the Vademecum Series and was published in 1897.

This publisher’s series consisted only of reprinted titles. Generally the covers are distinctive and indicate what year the book was published in. Your cover is an 1897 cover. It was printed in a number of different colors. A few examples are shown below.

It was originally sold in a labeled box. An example is below.