Show Us Your Oldest Books

[MrNewportCustom]

Inspired by Zaika's Personal Library thread in the Obsevation Bar.

Gulliver's Travels from 1934. This was my father's.

First edition The Early Worm by Robert Benchley. 1927

Speeches and Letters of George Washington. No publish date.

Tales of Sherlock Holmes. We all know by whom. No publish date.

And . . .

 

[MrNewportCustom]

. . . Continued

And my oldset book, The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testament Published in 1848.

"Shoemaker" isn't a family name, so we don't know from whence it came. Same with the flower; no idea. The front cover, unfortunately, has come off.

So, now it's your turn to show us your oldest books.


Lee

 

[carter]

Oh good, just swell, peachy, now we have to post pictures of OLD BOOKS.

Thanks Lee, I'll get back to you on this one.

Carter

 

[SamMarlowPI]

i have an edition of the Lincoln-Douglas debates but i have yet to find it...moving in...bleh...

 

[zaika]

uh oh....pictures forthcoming!! i love that bible's title page!

ETA:

Yay for books!

No date of publication, but an inscription has a date of 1902.

1908

1929 Russian book printed in Paris that I picked up at my alma mater's library book sale.

1916 This was my grandfather's, and when I got it, it was falling apart. Not sure how to save it at this point.

1917 A children's book in really good condition. The cover isn't anything to write home about...so here's the title page. I don't know how I got this one.

1926 This book's illustrations are AMAZING, brilliant colors. The pages are falling out and ripped (it was well loved, though!). I think this had been one of my grandparents'.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Ya stole my thread idea,...

...but that's alright.
I was going to start a thread like this, but I didn't get the book I was after, a history book from about 1820 or so. Old!
Anyway, I got this book just today, copyrighted 1921. Not exactly my oldest, or in the best of shape, but for a mere two bucks I couldn't resist the N.C. Wyeth illustrations.

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[AlanC]

^That's an absolute steal at that price. Nice find!

I'll try to post some things tomorrow.

 

[zaika]

(continued...)

1934 Russian book I picked up at my alma mater's library book sale.

1935 A book my grandmother gave to me, which her mother had given her.

1935 I do calligraphy, and a coworker found this at her mother's house as she was cleaning it out and gave it to me. It's very precious!

1938 A book I picked up at a library book sale for three bucks!

1939 Also from a library sale for three bucks. Some ripped pages, weak binding, but still in good condition. What dictionary now has full color illustrations? Well...I haven't seen 'em.

 

[zaika]

And the latest purchase...

1942 Purchased on Amazon for $12.50. 14 volume Child Craft.

 

[zaika]

Inspired by Zaika's Personal Library thread in the Obsevation Bar.

Gulliver's Travels from 1934. This was my father's.

I ADORE this cover!! Lucky you to have this story in a beautiful book.

 

[zaika]

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Wyeth?? Wow, that really IS a nice find!

 

[Kishtu]

Being at work, and being a total techno-numpty when at home, I can only give you the titles....

Pollyanna of the Orange Blossoms - yes, that Pollyanna, being glad she got married. 1927. Being an ungrateful toad, I'm selling it on Amazon, but no one has been silly enough to buy it yet ....

And my favourite, which is the Everyman pocket hardback edition of the memoirs of Col. John Hutchinson, as written by his widow in the late 17th century - my edition was published in 1918, and is in beautiful condition - just smells slightly book-ish if you know what I mean!

I've got quite a few wartime-edition books, mostly popular authors like Warwick Deeping and Elizabeth Goudge. It says in the inside cover that they are utility editions, although I can't see much of a difference!

 

[Starius]

Oh wow, I'm gonna love this thread.

I have lots of old books, so I'll have to come back here later after I dig through them for gems. But here are two I can mention right away off the top of my head because I allready posted a picture of them here in the Lounge once before:


Portraits and Principles of the world's Great Men and Women with Practical Lessons on Successful Life by over Fifty Leading Thinkers. Published 1896.

(Crappy cell phone camera picture)

Out of the Mire by Charlotte E Gray. 1911

By the way, Nick Danger, I've seen that Rip Van Winkle book in person before, its a good find!

 

[PrettySquareGal]

...but that's alright.
I was going to start a thread like this, but I didn't get the book I was after, a history book from about 1820 or so. Old!
Anyway, I got this book just today, copyrighted 1921. Not exactly my oldest, or in the best of shape, but for a mere two bucks I couldn't resist the N.C. Wyeth illustrations.

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You did very very well! Two copies I found online:

http://www.tomfolio.com/bookdetailsgg.asp?b=111321&m=1128
$450

http://search.abaa.org/dbp2/book1750_892.html
$1,200

 

[LocktownDog]

Almost all of my pre-1900 texts are in a box hidden someplace in the garage. Think of the warehouse scene at the end of Indiana Jones. In addition to the normal lot of 1920s & 30s novels, here are a couple of my favorites.

This one is a 600 page Special Report on the Diseases of the Horse. Printed in 1890. The photo is the title page. Lots of gruesome illustrations in this one!

And this photo is of just two books from a complete 16 book set. My great-grandfather left the set to me in his will when he passed away 30 years ago. Its one of my greatest treasures and will be kept in the family for generations. The Complete Works Of Mark Twain, printed in 1922. He was given the set when it was hot off the presses and held onto them for all those years.

Somewhere in that garage of mine, I have books with titles like: The Mechanical Engineers Handbook (1890-something), an Edgar Allan Poe collection from around the same time, Doctor Doolittle from around 1910 or so, a political study (very biased) of the Civil War dated 1880s, and a photography how-to from 1910. There are more. I'll see if I can dig up that box for photos.

Richard

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

WHOAAAA!

Thanks for the inform, PSG,...I had no idea it could be worth that much. Mine is in about the same condition, maybe a bit worse, than the first one that is $450. I'm guessing I might be able to get 2 to 3 hundred for mine if that's a real indication of it's value. Unbelievable!

 

[AlanC]

These aren't my oldest, and The Age of Fighting Sail is only about 50 years old, but the other two are ca. 1940s. I thought they might be of interest to the FL crowd, though.

My set of Scott from the turn of the last century (but missing one volume!):

More to come...

 

[AlanC]

Some ca. 1930s German books containing lovely illustrated plates. Research shows them to be 1930s; one has an owner's inscription dated 1933. Fritz Kredel did some of them. If you have many older children's books odds are you have one or more illustrated by Kredel.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

The oldest book I have is an 1848 copy of The Visitor's Guide To Philadelphia. Sorry no photos -- it's at my dad's house.

In my possession, I have a newspaper from 1861:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/Amy_Van_doren/oldschoolamy/newspaper_1861.jpg

I have this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/Amy_Van_doren/oldschoolamy/piano_buyers.jpg
I'm guessing 20s? There's no date on it.

And I have a few novels from the early 1930s:
The Office Wife by Faith Baldwin
Week-end Marriage by Faith Baldwin
Red Headed Woman by Katherine Brush

 

[Starius]

Amy, my guess would be the teens - 20s on that piano book, too.

I've decided not to post a lot of pictures of my old books for now, because I will drive myself insane doing it.
Also, my library room is currently a bit of a mess... so I will just post these for now, which are books that were in easy reach.

The first is from 1930, so not too old, but just wanted to share it because it is a big beautiful book. I am going to give it to a cousin of mine, who became a school teacher a year or so ago.

The Claybornes, 1902.

A Daughter of the Land, 1918.

Karmel The Scout, 1896.
The other 3 books? I'm not sure. No publication date is in them.

When it comes to old books, I'm very much a visual person and in such cases I do judge a book by it's cover. All of these books here are books that I just visually love.