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Message:: [QUOTE="2manybooks, post: 1486556, member: 8267"]I have asked my partner, who knows more about antiquarian books. (He would get his own account, except he already spends too much time on Facebook. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/smilies/rolleyes.png" class="mceSmilie" alt=":rolleyes:" unselectable="on" />) Here is his reply: 2many's partner here. Virtue was a Victorian-era publisher specializing in the coffee-table books of the day: travel, view, and other illustrated books with those nice steel engravings. That's an original binding -  probably the deluxe version; there was also almost certainly a version in decorated cloth, and maybe one with just a leather spine & corners. It would be absurdly expensive to have that binding replicated, hundreds of $ if not over a thousand, and not at all worth it. I have a similar three-volume set languishing at $400. [USER=56]@moreotherstuff[/USER] is right, many of these have been broken for their prints, it being easier to admire a butterfly pinned to a wall than to chase it through the brush. But if they're intact, it's a kind of murder to take them apart - we do it, but only to irreparable or incomplete volumes. You MIGHT be able to track down a conservator who could touch up the rubbed spots and treat with a leather dressing, though not all conservators recommend that kind of treatment these days. My advice, if the binding is sound, is to leave them alone, let them have the dignity of their history.[/QUOTE]