Q: I just received this copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Louis Carroll and I am struggling to find any clues to the origins I’d this book (such as the age, series, or worth) and I was hoping you could give me some insight, I saw a copy of Black Beauty on Amazon with the same hard cover but neither have a dust cover so although I know is published by Altemus I don’t know which copy this is.

A: Your book is part of the Sanspareil Series and was published in 1899. It originally came with a dust jacket.

During this year, a number of different color covers were published. Some of these in addition to a representative dust jacket picture are shown here.

There are quite a few “Alice” collectors. The Altemus Alice books that have a picture on the cover seem to sell for much higher prices than the publisher’s series Alice’s. Thus, unless you find a collector that just has to have this format, your book will probably not sell for very much.