Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia Of The World's Knowledge (25-volume Set) -

New York / London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1912. Hardcover. G+ (All volume bindings have changed color to milky lavender along spines, and sometimes on boards too, depending on how it was originally housed. A few soil marks on bindings. No foxing seen on page surfaces.). 25 vols. Purple cloth, gilt letters on spines, decorated flyleaves, various paginations, 12,000 pp. The complete 25-volume set of this handy reference. And when we say "handy," we do mean handy. Each volume is slightly bigger than 4" x 6." The publisher writes in the Preface: "The Standard is without a doubt the most compact and handy Encyclopedia in the world. It conists of twenty-five volumes, each of which will slip into the coat pocket, and all of which will stand on the ordinary desk within easy reach of a writer's hand. Nor has this compression of bulk led to inadequacy or omission in the contents. The present work gives an adequate treatment to all important subjects, and contains no less than 50,000 separate articles in its 12,000 pages. And all this is contained in a series of volumes which occupy a space on a shelf of less than two feet." A worthy glimpse into the past.