Arkham House First Edition

Hello, I have a few Arkham House books including a copy of The Watchers Out
of Time by Lovecraft. The other books I have-- New Tales of the Cthulhu
Mythos (1980) and A Rendezvous in Averoigne (1988) are stated to be First
Editions but there is no statement about edition or printing in WOoT (1974).
Can anyone tell me how Arkham House designated first edition in 1974?

Thanks in advance for any information.

In "Ye Olde" days, Arkham books did not carry a first edition
designation; I don't believe Derleth and Wandrei ever expected to sell
enough copies of any of their titles to warrant a second printing. At
the back would be a colophon noting the number of copies, who'd
actually printed the book, and the binding cloth.

On the rare occasion that demand called for a new printing--as for the
Lovecraft collections--the colophon will note "A second printing of
two thousand copies, etc etc."

In later days, Arkham has put a printing statement on the back of the
title page, just like everybody else.

Jim