Two of a three volume set?

At an estate cleanout where books were being discarded, I picked these up though I had no expectation that they would be worth anything. After all this is a mathematics book, not early, dated 1882, not signed. Very surprised when I checked on abebooks/bookfinder. There are lots of people reprinting the book on demand.

In my search the only original edition I could find (three volume set) is priced over $1300. https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=jordan&fe=on&sortby=17&tn=cours+d'analyse&cm_sp=pan-_-srp-_-fe

I know that book price listing are often not reliable, but I don't know where to find sold prices for books, could someone give a clue? Is this seller insane, or is this book that rare and desirable?

Then, since I have volume 1 and volume 2, but not volume 3, what does that do to the value?

p.s. Please be patient, I will add pics to show pics with cover pages and condition soon. And I went back to be sure, but the third volume was not to be found.

 

Not having a complete set does impact value.

There's at least one database for book sold prices, bookpricescurrent.com, but it's subscription based and very pricey, so I haven't had access to it. I'm not sure if there are other databases or if libraries sometimes make bookpricescurrent.com available.

I wish there were an easy, free way to see sold prices for books. The best I've been able to do is through the following...

-- eBay sold prices
-- Asking prices on a book aggregator site (I like vialibri.net and sometimes use bookfinder.com)
-- Auction house results

Another possibility is getting informal appraisals from antiquarian and used book dealers.

 

We'll have to wait until you post photographs.

Debora

 

This forum was started by the old ebay Book people. I used to lurk on the old book forum. Never felt smart enough to join in. These people really knew their field.

Looks like it is still active.
https://www.bookthink.com/

 

You might offer them as individual volumes, hoping to luck into someone looking to complete a set.

 

I was on the buyer end recently of the same scenario. I owned 9 volumes of a 10 volume set of Japanese books and found the missing volume on eBay. I was thrilled to get it.

 

Each of these volumes seems to deal with a specific aspect of calculus, so there might also be people looking only one of those aspects.

 

Doing a google search on the author, it appears he is an historically important mathematician, which explains the importance of his major work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Jordan
From one of the reprints:
"One of the great algebraists of the nineteenth century, Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan (1838–1922) became known for his work on matrices, Galois theory and group theory. However, his most profound effect on how we see mathematics came through his Cours d'analyse, which appeared in three editions. Reissued here is the first edition, which was published in three volumes between 1882 and 1887. While highly influential in its time, it now appears to us a transitional work between the partially rigorous 'epsilon delta' calculus of Cauchy and his successors, and the new 'real number' analysis of Weierstrass and Cantor. The first two volumes follow the old tradition while the third volume incorporates a substantial amount of the new analysis. Ten years later, the even more influential second edition followed the new point of view from its start. Volume 2 (1883) covers the theory of integrals."

A German dealer is offering the 2nd edition for about $525.00.
https://www.abebooks.de/servlet/Boo..._-71954-_-77666&ref=imprad71954&afn_sr=impact

 

Thanks for the responses. I'll post the pics I have, then read responses in detail. Handwritten pencil on the cover pages but nothing inside and no ink I can see. Not the best pics, but show condition pretty well. Original bindings (I assume) intact and not broken. How would these be graded?

 

Looks like E. A. Lyman was a Professor of Mathematics at the (then) State Normal College in Ypsilanti.

 

2many's partner here, a bookseller. We'd call those 'good'. Others might rate them very good. They do not appear to have red rot, a problem of leather bindings of the period, which is good. French books at the time were usually sold in 'wraps', pretty much like a modern paperback, and the buyer would have their binder do them up to their taste & budget. Thus, you are unlikely to find a third volume that matches. Further, it seems like the third volume is the most significant, which will hurt your value, but there should still be some interest in just the first two. As they were published at different times, it's entirely possible the original owner gave up before volume 3 was issued! Mathematicians as a group ARE interested in the history of their field, so there is certainly some demand for a work of this importance, though it will be harder to sell in the US because it's in French.