Stamp Album From 1879 With Many Stamps

I'm with revcollector on this. I would cherish something like this and would never even entertain the idea of "tossing it". It's simply beautiful but on another note I wouldn't keep it right with my collection out of fear of whatever harmful "bugs" in it that could effect your main collection.

I'm glad somebody appreciates the album. I'm not recommending he toss the album, just stating what I would do. I'm a stamp collector not a book collector and barely have enough room to house my current stamps and albums. Personally I see little beauty in the album (sure the cover is nice and maybe once it was a beautiful album when it was in good shape), but obviously it pleases enough people that it will find a home somewhere. I do see beauty in the stamps no matter how "worthless" they may be and I would certainly rescue them.

I'd be curious how much such an album would sell for in an auction. Any ideas. I would think not much.

Although there are a few albums that are worthy of being an auction lot in their own right, this is almost certainly not one of them. Since a good philatelic library is essential to being a knowledgeable collector, most of us are by necessity book collectors as well. At this point the stamps and the album are one; there is nothing to "rescue". And since we have no idea how these stamps were attached to this album, it might well be impossible to remove them at all even if one wanted too. It would certainly be far more work than it is worth while ruining something that gives pleasure by it's very existence.

I own plenty of books. I don't collect them though.

Own or collect is a matter of semantics. You acquired them to fill a need for knowledge that you could not get without them. If they relate to philately they are a part of your stamp collection, which would likely be very different without them.

Its not just a matter of semantics, its more a matter of opinion.
I merely expressed my opinion of what I would do with the stamps and the album. After all "Joe Stamps" did ask for opinions.

I don't consider my stamp reference books and catalogs part of my stamp collection. Albums yes (my albums), but I don't collect other people's albums (yet). But if I came across something unique, unless the album was an integral part of a particularly valuable collection and the stamps were unhinged, I would most likely break the album down.

If I had such an album in my possession, because I see no practical utility in the album nor any information it can provide, I would not keep it. If I were a collector of old books, I might keep it even if it had no practical use, if it had some monetary value or beauty. (The aesthetics issue is also an opinion.) Since, I'm not a book collector and because it has little beauty IMO and little monetary value as you admit, I would dispose of it (and have done so in the past ).

However, I do collect stamps. So, no matter how worthless the stamps are to you, I would most likely find it my duty to liberate the stamps from that decaying, abused album (after all, pages are chopped up already) before any more damage was done to them. And if it took several hours to cut up the pages and soak them, and dry the stamps, I would enjoy it knowing the stamps would be free from continual toning and decay. I could them give them to my children if I had no use for them. To me that's totally worth the time and effort.

Obviously "Joe Stamps" was originally intending to cut the stamps out and mount them. That seems a worthy goal to me (my opinion only).

An interesting book from an interesting time. No stamp illustrations were needed back then.