Book appraisals...

[Teach]

I need someone to appraise a set of Charles Dickens books, The Pickwick Edition. They were originally owned by Louise Carnegie, the wife of Andrew Carnegie. Her signature and the year 1888 are inscribed in the first volume. Any references would be appreciated.

[Sticky Davis]

Half Price Books buys books, but wouldn't pay you much for used books in that condition and even less due to the admitted grafitti on the pages. They probably smell like my grandmother's attic anyway. Didn't Andrew Carnegie start thousands of libraries around the world? Perhaps the fines on these over-due library books outweigh the books' value?

However, I'm willing to trade my new George W. Bush signed autobiography for your old Dicken's book set - as a favor. No jokes as to which books are fiction though, please

[Teach]

I think I smell a swindle in the works.....

[penguin]

Here's a silly idea. You might check with signature collectors and dealers to learn if the Louise Carnegie signature has any collector value. Wouldn't it be a hoot if the signature was worth more than the set of books? Maybe, maybe not....




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[Sticky Davis]

Actually wish I did have that book set - I spent just a few minutes surfing the web and saw several different versions of The Pickwick Papers (one selling for $3500 in pristine condition - not sure if it was same printing as yours and it sounds like you have a set?) If you spend more than my two minutes invested, I'm sure you could find better data.

I think the combined value of Louise Carnegie's signature with the Dickens books (and her husband's founding of 2500 libraries) would make this an interesting buy for the right collector. Neither item on its own is "one of a kind" - plenty out there, but still relatively rare. The two items combined together though should be "one of a kind" and extremely rare.

But here is Louise Carnegie's autograph selling for $285 (several others at this site and probably many more across the Internet) - does this signature match reasonably well?

http://cigarboxlabels.com/gallery2/m...2_itemId=21894

[Teach]

Yes. That is the signature but she signed the book with a E W as her middle initials in the book.
Apparently she got the books a year after she married Andrew. My great great grandfather was prominent in some Pittsburgh business ventures and somehow acquired the books in 1916. The W is for Whitfield but I can't find anything that tells me what the E stands for.

The main Carnegie library wants the books so Suzan and I are going to donate them and I am looking for a tax write off. We have a lot of Pittsburgh memorabilia. Our relatives were liquor distributors and the story goes that they drank away the business and whatever they had left was pissed away at the horse tracks in Florida. We also know my g g g g grandfather owned the Beitler Tavern illustrated in several books and know it was a stop for Conestoga wagons. If the link doesn't work google Beitlers Tavern

http://books.google.com/books?id=qfn...tavern&f=false

[Rebel]

Wow. All i have to say is that is awesome and I wish there was interesting history like that in my family.

[PugLover]

take it to one or two of the rare booksellers in Dallas.

take it to Heritage Auctions in Dallas.... www.ha.com

Look at www.abesbooks.com or www.alibris.com to find what they might sell for, then go to the appraisers...they will most likely charge for the appraisal, but I wouldn't expect it to be much...you will need a written record of the appraisal.

Another way would be to get an appraisall from an auction house such as Skinners in Boston, Christies, Sotheby's etc.

[PugLover]

Is it possible that the initials E. W. represent her middle and last names before marriage to Andrew?

If so, then the signature may be much more unique than what you might find on the net.

[penguin]

There are a couple of items (books and articles) in this writeup about Louise that might help you track down the initials mystery:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Whitfield_Carnegie



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