BOOK 1883 THE MERV OASIS / TOME 1 AND 2

***Hello Everyone!


Quick Story: My dad collected Antiques for over 50 years. As a kid, my dad had an Antiques Store. My dad is getting older and recently sold his house. The house was filled with his most precious finds: Chinese Potteries, Porcelains, Paintings, Etchings, Prints, Tobys, etc, and many many Antique and Rare Books (several are signed) some books are as old as 1600's.



My dad gave me everything. I was the only kid so he wanted me to have all of his most precious treasures. I feel blessed. I will be posting a few things on here in the next few weeks in hope of getting a few more information on certain pieces. I still have 12 boxes of Antique books that are unopened so it will take me some time but will try to post the best finds on here. ***



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About this book :

- 1883 THE MERV OASIS TOME 1 AND 2 BY O'DONOVAN

- PUTNAM VERSION

- I FOUND THE VERSION FROM 1882 AND IT WAS FIRST EDITION, WONDERING IF ANYONE KNOWS IF THIS WOULD BE SECOND EDITION?

- WOULD WELCOME ANY INSIGHTS ON THESE BOOKS !

 

The Library of Congress has this to say about the book. I had been wondering about the reproduction of the passport in Russian. That is explained, too.
https://www.loc.gov/item/05007329/

 

This is great information ! I will read all of it, thanks very much !

 

Here is a puzzling question that I have. I am still learning about books and wondering, is it possible that a 1st Edition is printed over 2 different years? And from 2 different Editors?

I found the following and they are both from very reputable sellers (AbeBooks and Heritage Auction House)

The one from AbeBooks is published by Smith Elder and Co in 1882 and says 1st Edition.

The one from Heritage Auctions is published by Putnam in 1883 and also says 1st Edition.

So I am a bit confused since I am still learning about first editions...

If you could give me any insights on this, it would again be very appreciated

 

maybe the publishing rights were split...or passed from one to another..???

just a thought..

 

Could be! This is very confusing to me lol

 

The set was first published (the "first edition") by Smith, Elder in 1882. The Putnam set you have is probably the first AMERICAN edition, 1883 - it would help to see the copyright page, if there is one - copyright law was in a ferment around this time, so there might be nothing there. Or it might say 'copyright 1882' which would refer to the UK edition, or it might say 'entered by an act of Congress 1883' or similar, which refers to the American requirement to submit two copies to the Library of Congress of anything for which copyright protection was sought.

Generally speaking, when a professional talks about a 'first edition', they mean the first printing of the first edition, which is usually the most desirable to collectors. A change in edition properly implies a new setting of type, or a revision of the text in some way. There may be many printings of an edition. It was not uncommon (and still is common) for books in English to be published first on one side of the Atlantic, then on the other a few months or a year later, often by different publishers, sometimes in partnership, sometimes just by different deals. Often you'd hear collectors say 'follow the flag', because typically a British author's first editions were published first in Britain, and an American author's in the USA. In this case, Heritage may be just a tad lazy in this case. The book is #336 in Nerhood's 'To Russia and Return', a bibliography of travel-to-Russia accounts in English I have here; he notes only the 1882 English edition. Note, you say 'Editors' - I think you mean 'publisher', in this case, G. P. Putnam's Sons. The editor is the person who corrects the text; the publisher pays for it all and oversees production of the book.

Your set is bound in what we would call 'original cloth'. The leather-bound set offered by the Japanese dealer is, as noted, rebound in leather. Sometimes there was a publisher's binding in leather, sometimes more than one, of differing fanciness. Usually collectors want the original publisher's binding, not a rebound copy, and often the cloth holds up better. Yours are in quite nice condition; a lot of these Victorian travel books were read to death. There might be a list of illustrations & maps, which you should check to see if they are all there - very important, as often maps were torn out by map collectors, and illustrations by print dealers.

The little orange tag you have a picture of we call a bookseller's label (or mark, or ticket). It was applied by the original (usually) seller, as a small advertisement. There are people who collect them, and they are an interesting bit of the book's history - they were usually applied by upscale sellers to 'good' books.

 

Thank you sooo much for taking the time to give me such a great answer! My gosh I was so surprised and pleased to read everything you had to say. What a great wealth of information you have given me.. thank you!!

I meant Publisher not Editors you are totally correct.

Everything you say makes a lot of sense and it really helps me understand more as well.

I didn't find any Copyright after looking again but I did find something that I had not noticed before. Those little seller tags are 2 different colors in Tome 1 and 2. I am sure it's nothing special but cool to see they had some variants for those little tags.

Thanks again so very much for posting this. I really appreciate !

 

On the question about the Russian passport - I don't know what the Library of Congress says but it is actually an order to give the British subject O'Donovan a pair of horses with a coachman without delay at each post station from Tbilisi to Baku, based on the decree of the Russian Emperor Alexander II (Nikolaevich), for which 5 Rubles and 55 Kopeek were paid by the traveler for the distance 525 versti (about 530 km, the handwriting is awful), dated 2 Feb. 1879 and signed by a bookkeeper and a tax officer.
In the Russian empire that's how the state servants or messengers travelled - each post station had a person responsible to keep horses in good condition at any time and if such state servant arrived and presented his credentials, he was immediately given fresh horses to change his tired ones and continue travelling. So O'Donovan was given such credentials by the Emperor with this document.