1800s books 1 query or separate queries?

I have been going through old books passed down and trying to decide what might be rare/good, what's so so, and what are "dime a dozen" types. They date from the early 1800s to early 1900's. Many are school (grade, high school & higher educational) books. Subject matter ranges from literature, religious, poetry, fiction, math, philosophy, etc... Some have my great & great great grandparents' names in them. I have research many of them, but still don't know what to think about them because of condition, etc.. Their condition ranges from good to poor. Some still have their wonderful hand tooled leather covers. Just don't know whether to post separate queries or not. Here are most of them. Do call out any of them that you think may be something and I'll give more detail plus pictures. I have made a point of italicized and underlined the titles so they will standout.

1. Wm. Perry's The Royal Standard Dictionary; 1810.
2. Goldsbury & Russell's The American Common-School Reader and Speaker; 1844.
3. Goldsbury & Russell's Introduction to the American Common-School Reader and Speaker; Comprising Prose and Verse with Elementary Rules and Exercises in Pronunciation; 1845.
4. McGuffey's New Eclectic Reader: Selected and Original Exercises for Schools; 1850s.
5. Salem Town, LL.D., and Nelson M. Holbrook's The Progressive Speller for Common Schools and Academies; 1859.
6. Patterson's Common School Speller; 1880s.

7. Patterson's New University Algebra: A Theoretical and Practical Treatise; 1875.
8. Horatio N. Robinson's New University Algebra: A Theoretical and Practical Treatise; c1875, 1st Edition was 1862, this is probably 2nd Edition.
9. Schuyler's A Complete Algebra: for High Schools and Colleges; 1883, 1st Edition.

10. Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States: Including Virginia, Kentucky; 1857, Revised Edition.

11. Prof. Jean Gustave Keetels' An Elementary French Grammar; 1880.
12. Adapted by Bullions, A Greek Reader, Selected Chiefly from Jacob's Greek Reader; 1868.
13. Dalzel's Collectanea Graeca Majora: ad usum Academicae Juventutis Accommodata; 1875, 4th American Edition. Title translates to "History The greater bodies of the Greek: for the use of the Academic Accommodata."
14. Blair's Outlines of Chronology, Ancient and Modern; Being an Introduction to Study of History; 1828, Revised Edition.
15. Wedgewood's The Revised Statutes of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Additional Laws to 1844, Reduced to Questions and Answers, for the use of Schools and Families; 1845, 1st Edition.

16. Rev. Richard Baxter's Rare: A Call To The Unconverted To Turn and Live and Accept of Mercy while Mercy may be had, as ever they will find Mercy in the Day of their Extremity, from The Living God; 1822: Originally published 1658.
17. Daniel Clark; Original author Alexander Pope; An Essay On Man; in Four Epistles, to H. St. John, Lord Bolingbroke; 1824 updated version by Clark; Original by Pope 1734.
18. Rev. Daniel Wise's The Path Of Life: or, Sketches of the Way to Glory and Immorality; 1847 or 1856.
19. Martin Farquhar Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy; a book of Thoughts and Arguments; 1851.

20. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's The Complete Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, c1887, 1st Edition?.
21. Ralph Waldo Emerson's ESSAYS, First & Second Series; 1891-1908, 1st Edition.
22. Goodrich's The Token: A Christmas and New Year's Present; 1832, 1st Edition?
23. By Sherwood the author of The Child's Keepsake (?), The Young Maiden Mirror; 1853-57; 3rd Edition(?).
24. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Divine Tragedy; 1871 applied to Congress, 1873; 1st Edition.
25. Louisa May Alcott's Rose In Bloom, a Sequel to "Eight Cousins"; 1876, says "New Edition" on the title page and the printing date is 1876.
26. Dumas' Twenty Years After; 1909, Original French 1845, 1st translation to English 1846.
27. Fanny Ashley's Bessie Mason's Victories; c1913.
28. Winston Churchill's A Far Country; 1915, 1st Edition.
29. Winston Churchill's The History of the English Speaking Peoples, The Birth of Britain, Vol. 1; Copyright Canada 1956.

TIA.

--- Susan

 

Simple rule of thumb is if it's later than 1800, for interesting subjects, or 1700 for boring ones, the likely market is as decor.

There is a reason for this. The rise of popular education, education for everyman meant more readers, more books published, and many many more books preserved.

Without exhaustive examination, your list looks pretty well routine 19th C stuff. Medicine, science, navigation, farming, animals and exotic subjects like circuses and steam engines can do well, also engineering, etc.

Stuff that people do now, but differently, is interesting. Usually to the people that do it, so doctors buy medical books, etc. Religion, language and math and general improving works are not interesting. Or occasionally they interest people who have no money.

Although this one sounds potentially interesting if it is not a typo. No.18 "Sketches of the Way to Glory and Immorality" but I suspect immorality and how to achieve it was not the main theme.

Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but the fact is that most books, with a few notable exceptions that happen to be fashionable, like some modern first editions are remarkable hard to sell for more than nickels and dimes.

 

After reading the eBay Booksellers Board / Group and other sites for a while, I realize how little I know about book valuations. If I have time later I will try to give this more thought.

 

This site http://www.addall.com/ and maybe you've already used it, is one of my favorite book sites. Compare your copy to those listed. It cross references most of the pertinent sites.

 

......Keeping in mind that those listed are for sale..............not sold......

 

I'm sorry not having replied back to this thread yesterday. DH hasn't been feeling good since Thanksgiving. Yesterday finally put my foot down and insisted on him going to the doctor. The diagnoses was bronchitis bordering on pneumonia. The doctor ordered complete bed rest, antibiotics, fluids and scolded him for not using his oxygen. He does have COPD. Gee, dealing with a sick member of the male gender of our species isn't easy. They either deny anything is wrong or they moan and groan over every ache and pain.

>Simple rule of thumb is if it's later than 1800, for interesting subjects, or 1700 for boring ones, the likely market is as decor.<

Thank you, Af. To be perfectly honest I was suspecting something like that; however, I didn't want to take a chance of missing something. There were really only a few I wasn't sure about such as:

1. Wm. Perry's The Royal Standard Dictionary; 1810.
4. McGuffey's New Eclectic Reader: Selected and Original Exercises for Schools; 1850s.
20. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's The Complete Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, c1887, 1st Edition.
21. Ralph Waldo Emerson's ESSAYS, First & Second Series; 1891-1908, 1st Edition.
22. Goodrich's The Token: A Christmas and New Year's Present; 1832, 1st Edition.
24. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Divine Tragedy; 1871 applied to Congress, 1873; 1st Edition.
25. Louisa May Alcott's Rose In Bloom, a Sequel to "Eight Cousins"; 1876, says "New Edition" on the title page and the printing date is 1876.
28. Winston Churchill's A Far Country; 1915, 1st Edition.

>Although this one sounds potentially interesting if it is not a typo. No.18 "Sketches of the Way to Glory and Immorality" but I suspect immorality and how to achieve it was not the main theme.<

Bahaha.... or however Messi writes that laughter! I doubt any of us needs instruction on how to be immoral, .... it kind of comes naturally. Now being immortal is a "horse of another color." This book is special to me for it was given to my great grandmother in 1876. She had written her name, date and the name of the minister who presented it to her when she joined the church at the age of 17. She had been baptized in that church in the late 1850s.
------------
>After reading the eBay Booksellers Board / Group and other sites for a while, I realize how little I know about book valuations.<

Fig, I'm right there with you. I thought about posting this list on the eBay's book board, but didn't want to see an augment start over there. A couple of the regulars over there kind of got into it when Bev posted over there the other day. Thank you for replying, Fig.

------
Miles..., thank you for the link! I have now bookmarked that site. I ran a few of the books through their search engine. Did find examples of several, but all the examples were relatively new reprints. Did find several of the books now accessible online, archived such as the following:
https://archive.org/details/collectaneag182601dalz

Here is a 2010 auction of the oldest book, Wm. Perry's The Royal Standard Dictionary; 1810. It has the same leather covers. Geeeee, I wish I knew what it went for. Anyone got access to the auction results of the invaluable.com site?
http://www.invaluable.com/auction-l...andard-english-dictionary-c-9190-c-d5793de407

--- Susan

 

Susan, it sold for $40 - the estimate had been $75 to $200.

BTW, the laugh is "BWAHAHAHAHA" - you just left out the W
Now, if one wants it to be an EVIL laugh, then it's "MUAHAHAHAHAHA".

 

Another factor that you really can't plan for is that there might be a small number of people out there who really want a particular book that not many others would want. The other day I answered a request at my library for information about an old geometry text that we own copy of. We have a 1950s reprint of the book, originally published in the 1930s. After I answered the request by email (about some of the book's content), the requester called me. Along the way in the conversation he asked if we could sell the book. We are not allowed to sell books directly to individuals, and it was still in our collection anyway, so I politely said "no."

 

Gee, dealing with a sick member of the male gender of our species isn't easy. They either deny anything is wrong or they moan and groan over every ache and pain

.

uh...Lady....you bin talkin to my wife ????
MuHahaha!!!

 

>...sold for $40 - the estimate had been $75 to $200.<

Thank you, Messi! Gee, wish those figures had at a/another "0" on the end. Golly if they had, I'd be falling off this &*^&^% swivel chair. Oh, well, doesn't hurt to dream.

>"BWAHAHAHAHA"<

Got it, the "W"!!! I will no doubt be infringing on your laugh copyright.

>...small number of people out there who really want a particular book..<

You're right, Fig, interesting story. Thank you for sharing.

>...you bin talkin to my wife...<

Hmmmm... not just yours, but to every wife, woman, since the beginning of time!

--- Susan

 

I have old books that I think SHOULD be valuable, but aren't. I once sold an early edition of a book by Steinbeck for a bundle. Go figure.

 

Susan,

You may get more helpful replies if you post individual new threads with photos of the ones you are most wondering about. I realize it would be a lot to post a new thread for each one, so maybe just a few?

Fig