a very old book
August 20th, 2007
A friend of ours has this in his collection–he got it from a relative who was in county government at one time. It’s an amazing book, full of history, maps, illlustrations of the people who lived in Erie County 127 years ago.
Fascinating, and I wish I had either a copy of it or had time to scan every page in it.
UPDATE: I was curious about how rare (and possibly how valuable) the book might be, so I googled the title, the publisher’s name, and the year published, and all I can find is reprints and facsimilies. So far, I haven’t found a single web site that will sell, is buying or refers to an original. Which, btw, this copy is clearly. There’s no way to fake the age and decay of a 127-year-old book. I’m thinking it must be priceless. Not that our friend would ever part with it.
Posted in 
They said on the Antiques Roadshow, about one like this, that in fairness, belonged to the County. Then they said, that if you were not going to return it, (and that was the owner’s choice) it should be insured for about $20,000.
Remember, priceless is determined by who would want to purchase it and IF the person would sell it.
(My 2 cents)
Ha! I saw that same episode!
But in this case, it is not a government document, it is a book that was mass-published (just based on official records). There may be other copies of it somewhere.
It’s almost like a yearbook, because the back has advertisements and personal messages that were probably paid for by the same people who then bought copies of the book.
So on the basis of the government’s book in the Antique Roadshow $20,000 estimate being an estimate for a one-of-a-kind document, I’d guess that a mass-published book like this one, even if it is very very rare, isn’t worth as much as a one-of-a-kind document.
Hi, I’m with the Buffalo City Library System, and wish to inform you that the book in question is overdue from the system and the fine due is $3200.