1 comments about Collectible Drinking Glasses: Identification & Values.

1. This 136 page volume, with prices updated for 1999 features THOUSANDS of glasses, in full color photos. A nice overview and brief history of the hobby is included. Some major topics cover from: Artists and Producers, Characters and Personalities, Fast-Food Restaurants and Food Containers, to Americana, Space Related, Superheros and Sports. Each group of glasses includes photos, a description of the glasses along with a value range. Its completely indexed for ease of use. A must have for collectors of this topic. It carries a list price of $ 17.95.

2 comments about Chewing Tobacco Tin Tags, 1870-1930: 1870-1930 (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

1. this book is one of the best chewing tobacco tag collections documented. The text is very detailed and the pictures are great. It makes my collecting these tags much easier!



2. This book has tons of photos, a nice history section, and comparative values. It is a really nice reference.

4 comments about A Treasury of Scottie Dog Collectibles: Identification & Values.

1. If you are a scottie lover then this is the book for you! Even though this book isn't published yet I know the care and thought that went into this book. The author is a wonderful person to know and a true lover of scotties. This is a most have book for scottie collectors. It would be money well spent on your part.



2. This book contains beautiful pictures of various Scottie Dog collectibles, some with manufacturers listed and all with values. I can not say enough wonderful things about this book. Anybody who is into dog collectibles must have this book. Anxiously awaiting the next edition! The only change I would suggest in future editions is to give more educational information about the manufacturers. Order this book, you will not be disappointed!



3. This is a guide to the many items produced with the Scottie Dog (Scottish Terrier)image. The Scottie's heyday was in the 1930's when the registration with the AKC was at it's highest. Also in this same era, U.S. President, Franklin Roosevelt had a Scottish Terrier named Fala, who was world famous. Therefore a large amount of items were produced with the likeness of the Scottie in the past, and of course in the present as well. This book has a sampling of those items in various categories such as banks, bookends, paper products, figurines, smoking sets, tins, kitchen, etc. In fact almost anything you can think of, has at one time, probably been produced with a Scottie on it! This book also gives a dollar value to each item, usually in a range. The text is accompanied by good color photgraphs of the representative items. At the end of the book is a listing of books with Scotties, films with Scotties. The cover is an attractive plaid with photographs of various Scottie items. There has long been a large cult of Scottie collectors, finally there is a guide! One drawback however, is the noticeable increase in price for Scottie items since this book was published as more antique dealers now realize they can command higher prices for these items. Readers should also be advised that there is now a volume 2 in this series.



4. Brand new, year 2001, 192 page volume is the 3rd in the series. It features 192 pages with every page loaded with large, sharp, full color photos. There's a nice introduction to the topic. A variety of Scottie collectibles are covered ranging from banks, bookends, doorstops, planters, statues, calendars and advertisements, to greeting cards, movies, and more. If you love Scotties, you'll really enjoy this book. Add it to your library.

1 comments about Rhinestones!: A Collector's Handbook And Price Guide (A Schiffer book for collectors).

1. A very good book for the rhinestone jewelery collector, although quiet concentrated on the "big" names, especially de Lillo. Very interesting historical background pertaining to origin of the trade and numerous, excellent quality photographs.

No comments about Collecting American Paintings: Identification & Value (Identification & Values (Collector Books)).

2 comments about Lace: The Poetry of Fashion : With Representative Values.

1. I first found this book at my local bookstore and just glanced at it. A few months later it was still there so I decided to take a longer look. I am not sure why it remained in the store so long! This book is full of pictures of antique laces and original antique garments. Most of the garments are from the collection of the museum the author works for but some are from private collections.

   Each chapter covers a different type of lace. From Brussels Lace to Chantilly, you will find detailed historical remarks as well as pictures of antique fashions, historical catalog pages and fashion plates.

   If your recreation specialty is fashions of the 1900s to the early 1930s, you will regret not even glancing at this book. It is full of fashion ideas and ways to use modern laces to recreate historical fashions. My only regret was they put historical garments on models who obviously weren't wearing period undergarments.

   This title is definitely worth the price tag and is not just another fashion coffee table book.




2. The good stuff first:

   This book is wonderfully photographed, and has an absolutely superb array of antique and vintage garments that articulate better than words can the stunning, breathtaking, intricate inspiration of lace.

   I'm not a lace expert, though I'm roughly familiar with types and terms. I was looking for a book to give me a solid foothold into the world of lace: How is each particular type made? What are the distinguising characteristics of each? How do I distinguish machine-made lace from handmade? I'm still looking for my dream book that addresses all I just mentioned, but this book is a good start.

   It's a better reference book for those who have a bit more than a beginner's knowledge of lace (because of the lack of side-by-side comparisons; lack of illustrations right next to descriptions of types of lace). However, for beginners, it's still a really fantastic feast for the eyes, just the volume to get one excited about lace.

   I already loved lace, but this enhance my appreciation more. Really, enough good things cannot be said about the photography. Truly excellent, with lots and lots and lots of color.

   The bad stuff:

   The author is in some way affiliated with the museum that supplied most of the antique and vintage garments and examples of lace (she is the curator, I believe). This was an absolute bonus to the book as there are truly some great examples of clothing shown.

   However, somehow the power of the curator has swept aside the power of the editor (or publisher), and as a result this book is +filled+ with silly and absolutely non-useful photographs of the author's doll fashion handiwork (which involves, of course, lace).

   By no means is this just a couple of pictures. Full color after full color, full page after full page (some even in double-page spreads) the reader is forced to endure what may not be in actuality, but what comes across a bit as the author's artistic vanity.

   Small mannequins in the form of Barbie dolls litter and disrupt this book, clad in period-style apparel composed in whole or in part by vintage and modern laces. The sheers number of these doll photographs disrupt the focus of the book. They add nothing to one's knowledge of lace and add little to one's appreciation of lace (the dolls are small and are too minute to model the lace if the intent is to see the lace better by putting it on a doll). It's just a Barbie doll fashion show.

   Now, there are many that might delight in this type of thing, in its own place (i.e., its own book: "Vintage Fashions as Modelled by Barbie"). I think even one or two of these photographs would not have detracted from this book. But there are +so many+ of these full-page Barbie photographs that I feel readers are cheated out of information that might have been in its place.

   I didn't want this book because I had an interest in the author's doll fashion-crafting hobby, nor am I interested in her design skills as pertain to human-sized fashion (there are some of these photographs as well). This book was supposed to be about the history and pricing of lace, not some ego trip for the author. These dolls belong in another book (which probably would be a fantastic book on its own).

   It's like getting squash when you ordered pasta. Some won't mind this inclusion, but a lot of folks will probably feel cheated.

   Overall, I recommend this book, but every reader +deserves+ a heads up about this bizarre, misplaced doll parade.

2 comments about Finders, Keepers: Eight Collectors.

1. One of the most beautiful books I own, combining Purcell's precise and beautiful photographs with Gould's intelligent and accessible writing. Finders, Keepers combines the diversity of living things, history, scholarship and art in an immaculately designed and printed whole. Absolutely stunning from start to finish.



2. I have to start out by confessing that I bought this book for the pictures. I am fascinated by the photography of the grotesque, and Rosamond Purcell holds high rank in this rarified genre. She is noted both for her own original work and her recording (museum, collection, etc.) work. Her photography in "Finders, Keepers" is remarkable, strong carefully composed images with lush color. Just as notable is her reliance on natural light and the simplest of Nikon cameras and lenses.

   The only part of the book I originally read was Purcell's Afterword. It is a delightful exposition on her romance with collectors and museums, revealing a thoughtful, philosophical professional with a strong creative sense. After that much reading I was satisfied, and the book took its place on my shelves with Purcell's other works, to be referred to when opportunities of my own appeared.

   Having decided to review it, I discovered, to my embarrassment, that the book was actually about something. The text, far from being the filler that often appears in photographic volumes, turned out to be a series of gemlike studies of eight collectors of note, consisting of Peter the Great, Phillip Von Siebold, Willern Von Heurn, Eugen Dubois, Walter Rothschild, Agostino Scilla, Thomas Hawkins and Louis Agassiz . Some of these men are popularly famous and others are known only to other naturalists, but they are all interesting. Their collections, sometimes known only from fragments are breathtaking.

   The author of these essays is Stephen Gould, paleontologist and occupant of the Alexander Agassiz Chair of Zoology and Curator at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. Despite these rather awe inspiring credentials his style is delightfully accessible as he reveals each collector's life and passion to the reader. If you like paleontology, or natural history, or glances into the strange mind of the collector you will find this a refreshingly pleasant volume, providing an equal share of education and delight.

1 comments about Atelier Le Tallec: Hand Painted Limoges Porcelain (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

1. I bought this book because I had picked up a nice piece that was marked by this maker and I needed to identify it. The book is pricey but it has lots of beautiful pictures and good information. I did not find my exact piece but I did find the pattern so it was very helpful. It has good information which tells you how to date the piece by decoding the mark on the bottom. I may not use this book much as these pieces are not easy to find but I WILL look at this book many times!

1 comments about Cartoon Figural Toys (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

1. You can buy and read all the other cartoon collectible toy books ever published, but you won't find as many characters or as many figural toys represented in this guide. It is an excellent collection of so many obscure characters, as well as all the major ones. If you collect cartoon toys, especially figural ones, don't pass this one up. It also includes nearly every vinyl figure the company Dakin has every produced. A must for the Dakin collector.

No comments about Machine Age to Jet Age III: Radiomania's Guide to Tabletop Radios (1930-1962).