I have and older very small church hymnal book.....

Miniature prayer books were common around 1900, often smaller than this and often with silver covers.

To date a prayer book of the C of E (or Ireland), look at the daily office (or whatever it is called, I don't have one handy) and it always includes a prayer for the royal family, by name, as in 'God preserve our gracious King George the Second etc, or in this case, Queen Victoria or King Edward the Seventh.

I can't see anything but curiosity value in this one. I think it is fair to say that Vice has been generally discountenanced without the aid of any particular society. Usually such societies find a few new vices to discountenance that in the past had never bothered anybody much and in the process, create truly horrific new vices, such as the Irish Magdelene Laundries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_Laundries_in_Ireland

 

Well I spent $1 at an estate sale and just enjoyed the fact it looks so old and was something someone used very often and wasn't something that just sat on a shelf.

 

Would these pictures help? There's a good amount of prayers and lessons for everyday and also a chart of holidays

 

Chrissy, I "think" that now you've gotten (close? to) a (possible) date of publication.

In the last picture you posted showing "A Table of Moveable Feasts for Twenty-Three Years", it fairly clearly (to me) points to the fact/possibility that it was published at some time just before 1878 or possibly during 1878 given the starting year (date) for that chart of "moveable feasts."

Chrissy, given what you said in the quoted response above, you probably already were, but I can almost guarantee that now you most certainly are, a lover of old books.

A big "welcome aboard" to you . . . and please keep letting us know what other "book finds" were out there which caught your eye.

 

Yes that is true but I only spent one dollar

 

The downside to all the research I've done online, I cannot find this exact book. I went to a few sites to see if an expert can tell me about it or if it's worth anything to keep looking but everyone charges $$$ to give me answers. I live near a good size city but unfortunately no antique book stores/people that I can just bring it to.

 

Just wondering . . . and I hate to ask a personal question but . . . are you merely curious about how much "a book" with the same title, date of publication, and same contents/information (but not your individual book) is worth, or are you curious about how much the book you have in your hands is worth?

If you are planning on keeping it then it is worth how much you want to keep it for yourself.

Or are you planning on selling it so you need to get an estimate of how much your particular book is or may be worth to other people?

 

It's more of is it valuable enough to keep and possibly have it restored and pass it down to my family. If it's not very valuable then it's more of a nifty token to have. The value of it determines how much I put into it, if any. Also to have all the info is simply curiosity so I know exactly what it is instead of a mystery. Also if it's not worth much, maybe a certain church or historical place may enjoy it and I can donate it.

 

Chrissy, I can see that you have thought about this book beyond merely buying it.

You have a good perspective on what you want or don't want to do with your book (and why you bought it in the first place) and you aren't at this point limiting yourself in terms of what you do with this book.

 

What do you suggest I do then?

 

I'm sure this book was much loved and treasured by it's previous owner, who used it often.
Your best course of action in regards to this item....IMHO.....is to read it cover to cover....that is where you will find it's highest value.

 

Like I've said before, I'm not religious. Is it worth getting restored and passing it down to my family or donating it? Or let it sit on my shelf and collect dust? As of right now all I can do is enjoy it by knowing I have it.

 

It is not really worth any money. Similar prayer books are not uncommon, it is frequently found that things of little value do not appear on the internet because no one thinks it worth the time to mention or list them. So people who know what they are, simply say, 'Oh, it's one of them' and people who do not tend to think they are rare because they can't find mention of them.

The explosion of literacy in the nineteenth century, coupled with the massive drop in the cost of book production, means that in general, just being an old book is not really at all special financially, although they can be treasured personally as objects.

In the 17th C., books were really expensive; as Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board (a senior government job) Samuel Pepys was nominally paid £300 a year and he considered carefully paying a pound for a new book he wanted. By the end of the 19th C books such as yours would be given away free as part of the evangelical process, and other books would cost a shilling or two in the face of much higher real wages.

 

Welcome!

 

Many of us here love books. We like to handle and smell them. We may never read them. That's not always the point of having them you see...and I think, ultimately, you do see.
You're not religious you say...but is your family?
Why would they ever want it?
It didn't come from family to begin with.

 

I like to look at "old" books at sales because I find them interesting, but have not bothered to buy any. I have 3 passed down from my own ancestors that were printed in the 1800's that I only care about because I know who the original owners were and their connection to me.

I have bought a very few not-quite-antique books as references for silver, pewter and glass, but I doubt my son will care about them once they come into his possession.

 

Thank you all! It will remain in my possession but hopefully one day I will find one I much better shape. I almost bought an etiquette book and about proper grammar from like 1914, I honestly should have bought it since it was in great shape and the subject was unique, atleast to me.

 

Grammar books are either near perfect or wrecked. Anything used in school or public library will be trashed.
I watch for them because I like kid's books (these weren't just for kids) but they usually have to have color inside for me.
I have many story books and lots of school books, a few of these in great shape and some with the accompanying teacher's volume and some of those near perfect.
Dick and Jane and Alice and Jerry I have the most of as far as school books.
I was compiling items, including books, from 1914 for the 1914 Craftsman farmhouse I used to have.

 

That's so funny you say that! I believe this book was 1914 and it was from an estate sale of a very old farmhouse with barns up here in upstate NY. I should have bought it! It was in beautiful shape