Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ghopper1924, post: 1318893, member: 5170&quot;]Thanks! Good thinking there, shallow.</p><p><br /></p><p>Please forgive my slow and feeble thought processes. I apologize if I left out an important piece of the puzzle, but frankly I didn&#039;t&#039; want to muddy the water or give the whole issue too much importance. Anyway, here goes:</p><p><br /></p><p>There are bookplates laid in between the endpapers of some of the volumes, stating that &quot;Volume XXVII of the Collected Works of Sir Winston Churchill number 2146 in the centenary edition, has been commissioned by, and is published for &quot;John Doe&quot;&nbsp; by authority of the Churchill Centenary Trust.&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>Of course &quot;John&quot; was the person who purchased and owned the set before me. The implication is that the books were directly paid for by subscription (otherwise how would the Centenary Trust know &quot;John&#039;s&quot; name?), the further implication being that they only made as many at the time as were already paid for. So this little card insert makes me think that this set was never distributed on a general level, but only to subscribers.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Therefore, unsold sets were never returned to the publisher, because there never were any unsold sets. Did they just stop making them when they ran out of subscribers? Why, then, does my set number run above the purported run total of both sets? Because it was sold to a North American? But why not start the North American numbering at 1,000? </p><p><br /></p><p>BTW, the books are not otherwise numbered, although the frontispiece says that numbers will be found inside the front covers. There are only dates penned in, seemingly in the same hand as the limitation cards, noting the sequential publication of the books over a period of several years.</p><p><br /></p><p>Well, this is certainly not something to get too worked up about. Just curious.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in