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Shakespeare's Complete Works
1891
Here is an ad from
December 1891
The four volume
Shakespeare non series set was first published in 1891. Interestingly
this set has been discovered with
the Gusky Store of Pittsburgh imprint on the title page and Henry
Altemus 1891 on the copyright page. With the exception
of the imprint and the elegantly decorated end papers in the Altemus
book, the four volume Altemus set is identical to the
four volume Gusky set. It would appear that Altemus published this set
for Gusky to sell in his store. Although I have seen
some non-Altemus advertising in several other Altemus books, I have
never seen a book that Altemus published for a department store. This
is especially interesting considering that the Gusky set potentially
could compete with the Altemus set. It is unclear at this time exactly
what year the Gusky set was published (I assume in the early 1890's)
and what sort of deal the Gusky Store and Altemus had. Of note is that
there are no books with the Gusky imprint listed for sale anywhere that
I can find on the web.
J.M. Gusky (1845-1886) bought out a mercantile establishment called S.
Cohen in 1882. He renamed it the Gusky Store. The Gusky Store is
considered by most to be Pittsburgh's first department store. The store
occupied five stories and sold mainly a variety clothing. After Gusky's
death from pneumonia his wife owned the business and the De Wolf
brothers managed it. By 1888 it had more than two million dollars in
sales.
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