The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-16
MOST COSTLY BOOK
TWO sUMPTUots VOLUMES WEIGH
 ING I24 POUNDS.
100 Copies for Sloo, ,ooO--fawes Devoted Entirely to Jade and are Rich In Artistic Iilustrations--No
 Copy for Sale.
W. ?: curtls's Special corEsspondsncs resp, n


 W. E. Curtis's Special Correspondence of The Chicago Record Herald Probably the most sumptuous and ex- pensive book that has ever been pup lished since the invention of printing
 was issued from the press of Theodore
 L. Devinne & Co. New York. last week.
 It consists of two volumes weighing
 l24 pounds. It, Is bound In full green
 levant, with exquisite tooling by Stikeman & Co, New York City. The title is "Catalog and Investigations in Jade, published by Heber R. Bishop, New York, 1906" The edition is lim- ited to 100 copies and the cost exceeds S100,0oO. No copies have been or will be sold The entire edition has been presented to the King of EnglanTl, the Emperor of Germany, the Czar of Rus sia, the Queen of Holland. the Emperor of Japan. the Emperor of China, and to various art galleries, museums and libraries in different parts of the world. The two copies required by law to ser cure the copyright have already been
 received at the Congressional Library
 in Washington. and eighty-two copies are now on their way by express to the
 selected destinations. The remaining
 copies are retained for the present by Moses Taylor Bishop and A. T. Paterson
 of New York, the executor of the estate of the publisher. These also will be distributed among public institutions in accordance with the instructions of
 MT. Bishops will.
 The editor of this remarkable work
 Is George F. Kunz, the gem expert of
 Tiffany & Co. who has been engaged
 since 1886 in planning and directing the preparation of the text and illustra- tions. Mir. Bishops instructions to him were to spare no expense to secure the most beautiful and valuable work pos sible from scientific, literary, artistic and mechanical standpoint, and the success which he has attained may be | measured by those who have the privi lege of examining the volumes. They are a monument to a single mineral which Mir. Kunz considers, in all re- spects, the most interesting mineral in the world.
 The two stately folios are printed | upon the finest quality of linen paeer, manufactured especially for the pur- pose. The first volume contains PIT pages and weighs fifty-five pounds. The second valume contains 293 pages and | weighs sixty-nine pounds, The pages | measure eleven by sixteen inches. There are 150 ful1-page illustrations in the l highest style of execution--water col OTIS. etchings and Autographs, with
 nearly 300 pen and ink sketches in- | made by Suipis, Guerard, Richard, | Piquet. Le Rat, Coutry and Smillie | The Autographs are by Prang & Go. and Forbes & Co. The water-color sketches are by Chinese and Japanest artists. The text is limited to a his- | trocal, scientific and descriptive ac-
 count of the collection of jades which
 the late Heber R. Bishop presented to the Metropolitan Museum of New York in May, 1903.
 Mir. Bishop was wkll-known capital | ist and are collector of New York. He | came of English stock, his ancestors | having emigrated from Ipswich to the
 Massachusetts colony in 1885 and set-
 tied at Medford, where he was born in 1S40. He received his education and mercantile training in Boston, and for several years was engaged in planting and refining sugar in Cuba. During i the revolutionary disturbances some 1 years ago, he sold his estate and re- moved to New York, where he became interested in large industrial and f1nan- cial enterprises both in that city and the Northwest. He was one of the
 builders of the Third Avenue Elevated Railway, and was active in the deveI- ! opment of the Lake Superior iron mines. He became largely interested in Duluth and other Western cities and was q promoter of several railway en-
 terprises in that section by which he acquired a large fortune.
 Mir. Bishops activities were not con- fined to mercantile and financial af-
 fairs, however. He was man of broad
 public spirit and benevolence. and the
 hospitals, churches. art galleries. muse
 ums and educational institutions oi
 New York City bear eloquent testimo.
 nials to his generosity and public spirit
 He had a keen appreciation of ar' ! and became a collector in his early dis
 crimination and liberality From Pc | tersburk to Pekin." as one of hi' friends said, and the finest apartmen , in the Metropolitan Museum is now
 filled with the choicest examples O his collection. In 1902, about six months l before his death, Mir. Bishop presented
 them to that institution and endowed 1t with a generous fund for their main , tenance. He provided for a new
 wing of the museum building, to b. known Ss Bishop Hall" and employ ed the famous firm of Allard Brother
 of Paris to make 1t the finest possibl example of the period of Louis XIV This magnificent apartment has beer , pronounced by the most competen
 | crifics {o surnass anything of tha