How to know the number of positioning of a volume as compared to the liste of volumes published in the NELSON collection’s ?
1 - The clearest manner to know the number of volume that you hold, is to read it on the jacket of the book. It proves unfortunately that a great number of these jackets has disappeared.
2 - An other manner to know the number of positioning of your book, is to look down the first page of the text of the author, after all pages of presentation, or introduction, or preface. It is often printed a number of small carves. It proves that this number is that the volume and that it corresponds always to that focus on the jacket.
Take the example of the book of Erskine Childers, “L’énigme des sables”. This book is composed 381 pages, whose 14 first pages are composed of :
A white page,
An engraving in colors,
A page of title,
A white page,
Three pages of tables,
A white page,
Two pages of preface,
Four pages of cards.
The history of the book begins therefore really to the page 15.