Tonight browsing through eBay—always an activity fraught with temptations—I thought I was going to start building my heretofore hypothetical antique book collection, but perhaps it wasn’t meant to be, just yet. At literally the very last second, I was outbid on an 1889 Baedeker travel guide, Paris et ses environs. It includes a supplemental guide to that year’s World’s Fair, for which, it should be noted, the Eiffel Tower was completed. Oh well.
Next in my sights is another Baedeker, this one covering the U.S., published in 1893. It’s the first edition for this title, and from what I gather, the first of the guides to be originally published in English. The bids on it are already reaching out of my price range, but I’ll keep an eye on it in any case.