Excerpt from The Open Court, Vol. 18: A Monthly Magazine; March, 1904<br><br>It is unique, and the probability is that the work will soon become rare.<br><br>The original edition consisted of 1500 copies, but a disastrous fire in the bindery destroyed 500 of them, thus limiting the edition to 1000 copies. AS the color plates were printed at great cost by lithographic process, and the drawings on the stones immediately after destroyed, there is scarcely any probability of replacing the lost copies by a new edition.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.