r/AntiqueBooks

Hi All,

I'm new to this sub but active in r/Antiques . Found this little book in a dollar bin at a coffee shop the other day and thought it was cute with the makeshift paper dust jacket (which subsequently fell apart later when I was paging through) and the writing inside from the presumably first owner. A google search only showed that this is available on Amazon as a brand new re-print and no original or antique editions were found online for sale. It has a lot of illustrations that may be hand colored - particularly of men from different countries and continents like Italy, Turkey, Africa, etc (not surprisingly none of these descriptions were PC and some were quite racist!). Do I have something rare here or is this book run of the mill? Appreciate your time.

Recently came by a massive collection of old books, these two jumped out at me. How good of a find is this/are these worth anything?

Depending on the response here I may post some other interesting finds from my brand new collection.

I bought what appears to be some sort of engraving at an antique store and would love to know more about it. The vendor labeled it as being from the 1700s, which seems possible based on the style of the text, but I don't know enough to otherwise confirm that.

It seems to be pulled from a book, given the longer piece in the upper corner that was folded over. The back is blank but has the ghost of another image on it that may have come from the page behind it. Excluding the folded-over piece in the corner, the page measures about 8.75 inches width by 6.75 inches height. The paper has a ribbed texture.

Thanks in advance for your insight!

I just bought a copy of the Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns. I've included the photos of the front, spine, title page, and the interesting "book coupon" still affixed inside.

There is no ISBN which means it is pre-1967. A quick search online suggests that the publisher, Milner & Co., Ltd, operated from 1858-1910 when the company entered liquidation. After that the records are unclear as there are several companies operating under similar names (Milner being a common surname) and we all know online search engines have gone downhill of late. I also wasn't able to find a matching cover in an image search.

The footer suggests this edition was printed in Halifax (which makes sense as I'm in Canada).

I was wondering if anyone had a way to narrow down when it was printed. There's no copyright page, no date anywhere in the book that I can see, and Burns' poetry has been published in multiple editions since the 1750s by multiple publishers with Milner first publishing an edition in 1883 (not mine since that one is supposed to have a bust of Burns on the spine and mine does not). Also, any ideas on what this might be worth? It's a little banged up but the binding is intact.

Pristine, I see $10K on auction sites, they end up in museums. These are far from pristine. But even as they are, they seem to have a story. They are 138 years old.

I assume they must have some value to someone. It's been many years since people turned off their iPhones, headed into fields, picked flowers, looked up the Latin Names, labeled, bound, and saved them.

10 1/2 x 14 inches.

Thanks for any ideas. :-)