Henry Altemus Company

Mother Goose Series

In the bibliography 2 formats are listed for this 12 book series. It now appears that there are actually three formats for each of the twelve books.

Originally the first format was described as having half vellum (on the left) and illuminated boards with a picture within an oval on the right. The first two formats have this cover but the earlier half vellum is colored. Blue, red, green and gold have been seen. The first format was published only in 1905. The second format began in 1906.

The third format books were copyrighted in 1905 or 1911. The are cloth with multicolored book specific line drawn pictures.

Remember that the stories within the books are not always the same from format to format.

Mother Goose Series

Book #2 was initially entitled Animal Stories for Little People. In the second year of the series and thereafter it was called Our Animal Friends. The series was first published in 1904 not 1905 as the bibliography states.

Mother Stories Series

Earliest jacket is brown uncoated with black lettered series name and title in a rectangular box at the top of the front cover. The book's subtitle is in black letters at the bottom of the jacket.

Mother Stories Series

Series #132 the Mother Stories Series has 10 books. They were published in 1908 and 1909. The catalogues only note 10 books and the reverse of the later dust jackets of the series also only mention 10 books.
In certain Young People's Library Format 3 books published in 1910 an advertisement for the Mother Stories Series lists 12 books. Books #11 and #12 are phantom titles.

#11 is listed as Mother Stories from American History and #12 as Mother Stories from Dickens. Of interest is that the latter two books are the only ones listed without the illustration numbers, which is a good indicator that the books were never published. These two titles are phantom titles.

Below is a copy of the advertisement.

One Syllable Series

The 8 books that make up Format 1 have been seen with a characteristic early spine pattern. See: http://henryaltemus.com/series/series137.htm. Until now it appeared that the pattern was absolute for early books in this format. Now a new spine decoration has been discovered. It is unclear whether it predates or post dates the other spine. What is clear is that it is much scarcer than the usual pattern seen. Here is an example of the more common spine (pattern divided in two) with the newly discovered rare spine pattern (continuous). It is my suspicion that the newly discovered pattern is the earlier one but this is not based on any real data.)

Petit Trianon Series

Many of Altemus' publisher's series had various types and styles of artwork on the front covers. (See section on Publisher's Series). In 1901-2 one of the formats of the Petit Trianon Series was half vellum. The other half had an art nouveau illustration of a young lady in various poses. At this time two different illustrations have been seen that were initially posters done by Alphonse Mucha.

Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) was a well known Czech artist who excelled in the art nouveau arena with works designed for magazine covers, books, posters etc. It is most likely that Altemus appropriated these works for some of their covers without paying royalties. Mucha was not given credit within the books where his work appeared on the covers.

Below are two examples of the original and the cover illustrations - Poetry and Lady with Rose. As can be seen, they are close copies but the Altemus artists have revised them slightly.

Printemps Series and Archie Gunn

As with a number of series, Altemus used illustrations by well known artists of the era to illustrate their covers and/or end papers. Mucha and Beardsley have been noted already. The Printemps Series (#152) had the same cover illustration on each of its 25 titles. The books were published in 1895. Archie Gunn (1863-1930) was the artist.

Gunn's art nouveau illustrations of lovely young women were found on watercolor paintings, posters, book and magazine illustrations and postcards as well as magazine covers and the like. I have been unable to locate the exact picture that is on the Altemus cover. It is shown below.

Riviere Series

A second format has been seen for the Riviere Series #158. The books seen are light green or blue. Gold gilt ribbon decoration on the top of the front cover which encloses a rectangular box which spells out the book title in gold gilt on a beige background. 7 x 4.5.

Riviere Series

A new book and format discovered.

This series is a typical Altemus reprint series. It was published in 1901 and had the usual books that the Vademecum, Petit Trianon and other reprint series included. There was one exception however. This series had William the Conqueror by Jacob Abbott. This is the only Abbott book that was found in a series outside the Young People's Library and its offshoots. This book does not have the typical Young People's Library spine nor is it the same size as the latter books. It is 7 x 4.5 (Riviere Series size) not 6.75 x 5.5 like the Young People's Library books. Also of great interest is that this book lists Jacob Abbott as the author on the cover of the book but John S.C. Abbott the author on the title page. The Young People's Library book lists Jacob Abbott in both places.

I suspect that this is the only Riviere Series book with a format all of its own.

Standard 12 Mos.

Format 1 - All 4 books have the stereotyped silver gilt decorative front cover pattern which is shown here. In addition at least three of the books (Alice, Tales and Lucile) also have the very attractive pictorial book appropriate designs in silver and inks. Examples are shown here.