Porter & Coates, Philadelphia

Porter & Coates was established in 1867 and was succeeded by Henry T. Coates & Co. in 1895. Charles Davis and Robert Porter founded Davis, Porter & Co. in 1848. Henry Coates became a partner in February, 1866 necessitating the name change to Davis, Porter & Coates. When Davis retired in 1867, Porter & Coates was born.

Robert Porter (1842-1899) was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He worked for George S. Appleton, the publisher, before partnering with Charles H. Davis.

Here is a picture taken between 1867 and 1884 of the interior of the Porter & Coates bookstore at 822 Chestnut Street.

Porter & Coates published several T. S. Arthur titles.

Orange Blossoms, Fresh and Faded
Bar-Rooms at Brantly; or, The Great Hotel Speculation (First edition)
Ten Nights in Bar-Room, and What I Saw There
Idle Hands, and Other Stories
Little Gems from the Children's Hour

Idle Hands, and Other Stories was published in 1871 in two formats: Cloth for $1.50 and cloth with full gilt for $2.00. There are six illustrations. 9” x 6.5”. It is a first edition in name only since the content had appeared earlier. As of this time much (but not all of the 24 chapters in 208 pages) of the content of this book has been found in other earlier published works of Arthur. It is unlikely there is any original material in this book.

Little Gems from the Children's Hour
All of the poems and stories in this book originally appeared in the T. S. Arthur edited “Children’s Hour”. There are 142 pages of simple stories, poems and illustrations. There is a full page applique on the front cover of the book. 8” x 6”. 1876

This book was first published in 1875 by J. M. Stoddart & Co.

In December, 1877 Porter & Coates released two T. S. Arthur volumes. These titles have the same format. The books were published by Porter & Coates until its dissolution in 1895.
Orange Blossoms, Fresh and Faded
Bar-Rooms at Brantly; or, The Great Hotel Speculation (First edition)

Cloth. Black decorative patterns with gold gilt lettering 33on the spine. 7.75" x 5.5". The frontispiece is the only illustration.

The Alta Edition is a multi-volume, multi-authored set of reprinted titles of classics and popular works. The series began in 1882 and continued even after H. T. Coates & Co. took over in 1895. These two Arthur books first appeared in the expanded 1883 list: Orange Blossoms and Bar Rooms at Brantly. These titles were part of all the subsequent Porter & Coates’ Alta lists. The Bar-Rooms at Brantly in the Alta format is the second edition of this title.

The number of titles in the series gradually increased as the years went on. The interior of the later dust jackets listed the numbered titles. The jacket below noted 150 books. This indicated about an 1886-1887 publication date. Orange Blossoms was #59, while Bar-Rooms at Brantly was #60.

The Alta books are cloth. A number of different colors have been seen. Black floral decorations are on the front with a gold letter box on the spine. The only illustration is the frontispiece. 7.5” x 5.25”. The Alta Edition books were sold with dust jackets.

Note that the Alta edition spells Brantly incorrectly as Brantley on the cover.

Ten Nights in a Bar-Room was reprinted by this firm in two formats.
In the 1873-1875 catalogues a cloth in black and gold book which cost $1.25 was noted. This book has not been seen.

In 1885 a new edition of this title was advertised. This book was cloth bound. The only illustration is the line drawn Van ingen illustration of the Sickle and Sheaf bar. It is the frontispiece. 7.75" x 5.25".