Q: Good afternoon Altemus expert,
My siblings and I recently inherited my Father’s 1895 Philadelphia Edition (see attached photo’s.) We’re having trouble finding information on the Internet about its resale value. Can you help us?

A: Bibles were a mainstay of the Henry Altemus publishing firm in the 1880’s and 1890’s. (http://www.henryaltemus.com/bibles/bibles.htm). Photographic albums which had been a large Altemus revenue producer were replaced by Bibles in the 1880’s just as books replaced Bibles in the 1890’s.

I have seen 62 different cover variants (yours is shown as B8 on the Bible webpage) of the oversized Bibles which were published between 1884 and the mid-1890’s. Bibles of the 1870’s had covers similar to the Altemus photographic albums.

The contents of these latter Bibles varied (see webpage) and most had Gustave Dore illustrations. They are large heavy books and because of that are somewhat hard to find with perfect bindings.

Numerous companies published similar Bibles during this era and because of that most of them have little value. Bible collectors generally will not pay more than $50-75 even when the Bibles are in pretty good shape.