Expert: Cary Sternick - 7/19/2009

Question
Hi,  I just bought a book at an auction.  It is Black Beauty by Sewell and published in 1897 by Altemus.  I think it is from the "Illustrated library of standard authors".  The book cover is green with gold accents and little red flowers.  It has 50 black line illustrations and has tight binding, no writing or marks, faded lettering on spine and an old book odor.  I looked at several rare book sites and didn't find a single copy that matches this one.  I'm going to try to sell it and need to know a beginning price.

Answer
Hi Joyce,

I want to clarify the series it belongs to. Take a look at
http://henryaltemus.com/series/series120.htm and see if the cover matches one of the ones here. If it does not, send me a picture of the cover at cary@henryaltemus.com so I can figure out more about your book.

If the cover matches you can see that your book was published in 1897 or 1898 and it is a reprint of the original. Altemus as well as numerous other reprint publishers in the 1890's published this title. Altemus published Black Beauty in hundreds of different formats. None are especially valuable

The fact that you are unable to find this identical copy however anywhere on line does not unfortunately make it valuable. To sell it at all you will need to find a Black Beauty collector who is looking to get all the different versions of the book.

Generally in this situation people take what they can get since a lot of times the book does not sell at any price.

Cary