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OT:Any (Non Comic) book collectors here? Can anyone tell me what this is worth?

Started by kagemusha7s,

19 posts in this topic

kagemusha7s

kagemusha7s

Posted
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Found this in a cedar chest yesterday. 1885, leather bound with gold leaf edging. Beautiful condition still in original box. Very large book. Much to big for my scanner. I would appreciate any input on this. Thanks!

 

 

File0742.jpg

 

File0743.jpg

 

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Ze-man

Ze-man

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We have a great antique bookstore in town, I will pass along the link to this thread and he might be able to pass along some detailed information to you.

 

Ze-

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s-man

s-man

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Cool book...and whomever this Gustave Dore guy is, to bad he didn't draw horror comics! 893whatthe.gif

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Scrooge

Scrooge

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Cool book...and whomever this Gustave Dore guy is, to bad he didn't draw horror comics! 893whatthe.gif

 

foreheadslap.gif I guess growing up in France would make Doré's name more commonplace and I shouldn't be surprised people might not be as familiar with him here and today but Doré was one of the leading illustrator of his time and his plates are highly sought after, esp. his illustration of the Bible, Poe, The Divine Comedy, ...

 

Also Doré died in 1883 and first drew the illustrations for this book in 1857.

 

Here's an example from the Divine Comedy -

Gustave_Dore_Inferno34.jpg

 

and one from Poe's The Raven -

Paul_Gustave_Dore_Raven1.jpg

 

and finally another from the Divine Comedy - The Inferno -

460px-Dore_woodcut_Divine_Comedy_01.jpg

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the blob

the blob

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Some of the online booksellers pricing is kindah like David T. alexander or Mile High Chuck --- not really in line with what stuff actually sells for. Having had a few 1st editions of books that were only listed in the $300-$500 range on these book sites I was very excited. After many many ebay listings I got $99.99 for one of them and $49.99 for another.

 

With that said, you have a nice book there that is sure to have a market. Although, it's obviously not the first print of Dante's Inferno! And my guess, based on what our Dore expert noted, that it's not remotely a first print of the Dore illustrations.

 

With that said, it's in nice shape, a major title and illustrated by a top flight person of his day, so it should sell nicely if that's what you want to do with it.

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PovertyRow

PovertyRow

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Check the first few pages before the story itself.

 

Post all the info you can find:

 

Publisher

Date of Publication

City of Publication (important)

Copyright date (may differ or may not be there at all)

Any reference to printing number (2nd printing, 5th printing etc)

Number of pages

 

That is where the information lay to determine the value. For the love of god don't spread open the book and scan it though. Want that spine to be nice and tight. If you got a digital camera you could also shoot it that way and post the image.

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kagemusha7s

kagemusha7s

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Thank you again to everyone for all the input. Best I can tell it's worth $200-$400. It was published in 1885. Chicago and New York Belford, Clark & Co., Publishers

 

The scan does not do justice to how sharp this book is. It's new like it just came off the shelf. The box has considerable wear, but it's the original box (it's labled Dante's Inferno on the box as well)

 

Very cool book. If it was worth a ton of money I would sell it, but for a few hundred bucks I'd much rather hold on to it.

 

Thank you again everyone for all the information.

-Mike

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