How many total volumes comprised a set that was printed by Fred j quinby co for their collected works of Charles paul de kock memorial edition limited to 1000 copies in 1904?

Answer 1

Frederick J. Quinby Company of Boston, MA, published several editions of 'The Works of Charles Paul de Koch'. Quinby pre-announced six different forms or styles, as follows: “The King Rene Edition, consisting of a single set, $150,000; Bibliomaniac Edition, consisting of 10 sets, $50,000 a set; Romainville Edition, consisting of 25 sets, $11,250 a set; Passy Edition, consisting of 50 sets, $3,125 a set; St. Martin edition, consisting of 100 sets, $1,500 a set; Memorial Edition, consisting of 250 sets, $750 a set; St. Gervais Edition, consisting of 500 sets, $375 a set." Of these, the Bibliomaniac Edition and the Memorial Edition were certainly produced, although not all of the 10 sets of the former were successfully sold: illustrator John Sloan seems to have been paid with some volumes from these sets. There was a ‘Bibliomaniac Edition’ in 48 [or maybe 50] volumes (28 titles), produced on vellum between 1902 and 1904, with just 10 of each volume - the all time record for amount of printing on vellum. As well as the illustrations from the ordinary edition (a frontispiece and 3 more per volume), this edition included illuminations by Helen Sinclair Patterson & Ella Grace Brown. A report in the New York Times on June 16, 1908, stated that the vellum cost $200 per book. There was a ‘Memorial Edition’ in 50 volumes, produced between 1902 and 1908, with 250 of each volume, bound in three-quarter blue Morocco and boards, tall raised bands, on-laid morocco floral designs of 2 alternating styles on spines, titles lettered in gilt. Frontispieces for the Memorial Edition were printed in color, and they have a decorative border partly in color around the title page. The Memorial Edition was bound by the Harcourt Bindery, begun in 1900 by Frederick J. Quinby and Leopold A. Huegle as Huegle, Quinby & Co. Leopold Huegle and his son John, also involved in the business, both died in 1906. Quinby published four unannounced cheaper sets in 25 volumes (18 titles), each of 1,000 numbered copies, all apparently printed from the same formes and with copyright dates between 1902 and 1904: St. Louis Exposition edition: nos. 77, 182, & 968 are red leather with marbled boards with decorative gilt spines, raised bands five compartments, top edge gilt, ‘St. Louis Exposition Edition’ in gilt at bottom of spine. Frederick J. Quinby Company was an exhibitor at the Exposition in 1904, demonstrating hand printing on vellum for its Bibliomaniac Edition. Gregory Edition: nos. 207, 336, 607, & 626 are green cloth with gilt titles on spine. Artists’ edition: no. 553 is red cloth with paper labels on spine: these labels state “Charles Paul de Kock Book Title Artists’ Edition”. Author’s edition: nos. 64, 219, 747 & 913 are red cloth with paper labels on spine: on the later sets these labels simply state “Charles Paul de Kock Author’s Edition”, without any book title Printed on the copyright page in each volume is Edition Limited to One Thousand Copies Number ……. with a number stamped in. It appears that not all the books produced were sold in complete numbered sets, as there are some books without any number stamped in. It appears that when an edition sold out, Quinby simply had another 1,000 printed, put them in a different binding, and gave them a new edition name. An associate of Quinby's, Clinton Tyler Brainard, operating as C.T. Brainard Publishing Co., published about 1904 an Edition De Luxe of ‘The Works of Charles Paul de Kock’, using translations and illustrations commissioned by Quinby (in red cloth with paper labels on spine). This edition had some (? all) of the titles issued by Quinby in two volumes bound as single volumes. Cashing in on the publicity engendered by Quinby, about 1903 George Barrie’s Sons (Philadelphia, PA) published 20 volumes of ‘The Masterpeices of Charles-Paul de Kock’, translated by George Burnham Ives, in a Japan vellum edition, limited to 1,000 sets, bound in gray silk moiré with paper labels, each with one water-color facsimile and five photogravures after paintings by Ch. Weber. They licensed their translations to the Jefferson Press (Boston, MA) for a lower priced unlimited edition. About 1909 Frederick J. Quinby moved from Boston to Long Island, where he promoted an unsuccessful (except for the money with which he made off) land development, The Tangiers Manors Corporation, on the Fort George estate at Mastic. [see New York Times for April 10, 1910]