No comments about Popular and Collectible Neckties: 1955 To the Present (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

No comments about Fashionable Clothing: From the Sears Catalogs, Early 1950s (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

3 comments about Art of the Cigar Label.

1. As a graphic designer this book has served me well on many projects. It is detailed with a large display of labels that are well reproduced for the viewer. The catagories add a variety subjects to the art of labels which is why many of us feel this book is like a bible. It is the most complete book so far on this subject.



2. Any true collector will appreciate Davidson's initial edition, and followup version, "Smoker's Art". For those of us who pore over piles of stuff seaching for a winner, be it cigar labels or anything else, this book is a treasure trove of high quality art.



3. How interesting can old American cigar labels be? Enough to fill up a full color 250 page coffee table book, at least.
   
   The book is more than just a compendium of old labels from deceased brands, but a history lesson, a seminar in the materials and processes used in generating the labels, and a discussion of the various themes explored in the artwork, i.e. patriotism, women, theater, sports and gambling, cowboys & indians, you name it. Finally, there is some very informative stuff on collecting cigar art, searching for historic labels and estimating value. The book is the most complete work on the subject of this type of collectable Americana, and as such is recommended to all interested in the field.

3 comments about All the Cowboys Were Indians.

1. I read this book over a couple days while waiting for my students to test for their pilot's liscenses. The pilot examiner is a close friend to Stan Brock and he suggested I read it.
   
   The book kept my attention throughout.



2. After participating in the most recent RAM trip to Guyana, this was a wonderful book to read and enjoy. Mr. Brock was great to work with. I wish that I had read his book before traveling to this wonderful country and visiting the Dadanawa Ranch.



3. I received this wonderful book from Stan Brock himself after volunteering with RAM for about a year. I found it to be a deeply rich book filled with stories that explain much of why Stan started RAM and why he returns to Guyana several times each year. Written in a delightful tone that reflects Stan's own understated sense of humor, the book is a page-turner that leaves you feeling as though the time you spent reading it was not wasted in any way.

No comments about The Lewis Chessmen (Objects in Focus) (Objects in Focus) (Objects in Focus).

5 comments about Warman's Fenton Glass: Identification and Price Guide (Warman's Fenton Glass: Identification & Price Guide).

1. As an avid Fenton Art Glass collector, I eagerly devour any new material written about my favorite glassware. In this tome, Mark Moran has summoned his considerable journalistic and antiquarian talents to produce a reference book celebrating Fenton's 100th anniversary of art glass production. The well-written and succinct text introduces each section of a chronological photographic tour of representative pieces from 1905 through the present. Mr. Moran has ransacked collectors' display shelves and closets to find numerous beautiful and rare pieces of Fenton that I have not seen previously documented. Also included is a price guide listing some 2000 items.
   
   Seasoned and novice collectors alike should find this book a welcome addition to their libraries.



2. I find it difficult to rate any one book on glassware since as any glass collector knows, one would literally have to have an entire library dedicated to antique glass only.As far as this book goes I found it to have a good bit of information on many areas of Fenton glass, some of which I was seeking and some I was not aware of. Overall,it is a good general guide, but as I said previously one would need a roomful of books to cover not only glass in general but indeed an entire section of said library would have to be just for Fenton glass. That being said I can recommend this book for beginners and casual collectors, as for the serious and professional types I think a collection of Fenton books should accompany your collection of Fenton glass.



3. I bought this as a gift for a friend who runs a consignment shop and she loves it and uses it as a reference frequently.



4. This book has wonderful photos of beautiful Fenton glass items from all through the Fenton production history. The back-up text is also very helpful and informative.



5. I work at a consignment store and this book is of great help in identifying antique glass wares.

2 comments about The Devil and Dr. Barnes: Portrait of an American Art Collector.

1. I thoroughly enjoyed this book between hilarious episodes of unending laughter and looking at the picture of the author who could stand to compile all of this! This is not a detailed biography of Dr. Barnes but rather a focussed smear of all letters he wrote to people who agitated him. It seems if you left him alone, he was a nice person, but he defended himself and his art views when attacked. How reasonable! There is helpful information to a researcher but the author seriously fails to develop a thesis for all the material he gathered. For instance, noting that Charles Laughton was a frequent house guest and not commenting on what Elsa Lancaster had to say about him. Not putting the photographs in context with the times and story, as most of the ones provided were posed or journalistic productions. No original theories to solve any mysteries were proposed and no, absolutely NO references to fine art or how any of these controveries documented in era correspondence affected, for example, Matisse's development of the mural in the lobby, or how many Soutine's were purchased, or the specific focus of the Renoir collection. All of this is non-existent in this book, which makes this book useful only to someone who is interested in character assassination of philanthropists and who like a good laugh at the expense of other people's immaturity and lack of emotional development in cricital areas.



2. The Devil And Dr. Barnes: Portrait Of An American Art Collector by Howard Greenfeld is an extensive study of an eccentric man's defiant accomplishments in the creation of the his prestigious art collection obtained for the mere enjoyment of the imagery. Engaging its readers in the fascinating life of Albert Coombs Barnes, The Devil And Dr. Barnes provides readers with an engaging biography of a complex, passionate individual, his life and involvement with the art world, drawing upon accounts from Gertrude and Leo Stein, Berrtrand Russe, John Dewy and a great many more of his contemporaries. The Devil And Dr. Barnes is a vivid depiction of a remarkable life and is very highly recommended reading for art students and collectors.

3 comments about Baskets: A Book for Makers and Collectors.

1. Billie Ruth Sudduth's book is a masterpiece. The color photographs (and the baskets themselves) are amazing. She showcases some marvelous pieces made with both traditional and unusual materials. She explains every aspect of the craft remarkably well, in easy to understand fashion.Even a beginner could weave a basket using her instructions. I was pleasantly surprised that she included so many of her basket patterns for baskets that are on display at the Smithsonian. Now, I will be able to weave a piece of art with her easy instructions.



2. Ms. Sudduth is a critically acclaimed basket artist and some of her work is displayed in the Smithsonian Institute. Her work is excellent and her teaching skills are perfection! This (hardback) book is 144 pages of serious instruction with many beautiful color photos of baskets from very talented basket artists around the world. Not only will she have you making a wonderful variety of baskets from the start... she includes several tips to help make your work easier (esp. how to correct mistakes and get rid of that dreaded "hairy" look).

   Inside you will learn (and also see colorful pictures of): Commercially available materials, found and collected materials, tools and equipment needed, preparation of materials, and storage. All of the weaving terms are well defined to be easily understood, and broken into sub-catagories of weaving variations, bases, ribs and random weaves. You will learn the basic techniques of start and stop weaving, continuous weaving, how to upset your stakes at the beginning and then how to bend and tuck them in at the end. How to add new weavers, carving and attaching a rim. All about adding rim and base fillers. Ms. Sudduth also teaches you everything you need to know about dyes from the equipment needed, safety precautions, the difference between natural, chemical, and fiber reactive dyes... plus how to store them.

   The book continues on to teach you stop and start plaiting, continuous plaiting, twined construction, start and stop twill, continuous twill, and ribbed construction; How to add surface embellishments such as curls, painting, stenciling, whitewashing, and adding other attachments.

   The remainder of the book discusses (but not instructs) the non-woven forms of construction: coiled, knotted, stitch, wrapped, and cast and mold. The back has a list of suggested reading, suppliers, Basket Association and Guilds, Craft Schools offering classes, metric conversion tables, plus the names of all the contributing artists.

   A very complete book, easy to understand, that not only teaches you - but will continue to inspire your creativety time and time again.




3. To anyone embarking on the learning of the art of basket weaving, this book is a must have. As someone new to basket making, I wanted to make sure that I knew the various terms and techniques and exactly what they meant. This book fulfilled that desire for me. Since purchasing it about two months ago, I have made a number of baskets and cannot count the number of times that I referred to it for direction. Both the text and photographs of the various techniques leave very little to desire. In the last paragraph of the introduction, Ms. Sudduth notes that she hopes that one will discover the excitement and the extraordinary possibilities of baskets. That hope has been fulfilled. I thank her for sharing her incredible knowledge of this art.

1 comments about Sex Collectors: The Secret World of Consumers, Connoisseurs, Curators, Creators, Dealers, Bibliographers, and Accumulators of "Erotica".

1. It is not surprising to come across a person who collects things: stamps, coins, books. No one considers such collecting remotely abnormal, even though a person might get so focused on collecting as to be unable to talk with interest about anything else. Then there are the people who collect erotic items, and that makes alarm bells go off. Of course, the erotica collectors are not as likely to bore us with their collections as, say, Barbie collectors are. For one thing, erotica is interesting to almost everyone who will admit it. For another thing, such collections are usually covert, and for yet another, even though the collectors might be obsessive, they don't get tedious with their stories about their treasures, since they are usually not a topic of conversation. Geoff Nicholson has seen lots of such collections, and gotten the collectors to talk, and reports back in _Sex Collectors: The Secret World of Consumers, Connoisseurs, Curators, Creators, Dealers, Bibliographers, and Accumulators of "Erotica"_ (Simon and Schuster). It's a funny, genial guide to odd (but not sociopathic) people and strange pursuits; Nicholson has seen plenty of eye-popping material, and while he candidly admits that there are some things he has seen that he wishes he could excise from his memory, he does not include such stuff in his descriptions. The book reflects his experience in researching it: "I've seen a great many things that were sexy and fun and beautiful and fascinating, and I wouldn't have missed them for the world." His enthusiastic book is much more about collecting than it is about erotica or sex. In fact, he dismisses the argument about differentiating between what is pornography and what is art by saying that it doesn't make a difference for the purpose of the book; what matters is that someone is collecting it.
   
   Who is doing the collecting? Generally, people with a lot of money, for originals are not cheap and the collections are often extensive. Take Naomi Wilzig, of whom the _National Examiner_ headlined, "GRANNY Proves You're Never Too Old for PORNO!" She enjoys showing the enormous collection in her home, but is having a museum built so that we can all see it someday. Another great collector was Alfred Kinsey, although he is better known, of course, for his interviews and his reports on the sexuality of Americans. "Kinsey believed in data," Nicholson writes, and was trained as a biologist; he collected hundreds of thousands of gall wasps, his specialty, and when he moved into investigating sex, he collected anything having to do with it. Nowadays, "People donate to the Kinsey having reached the stage of their lives when they want to get rid of their collections." Also, police departments donate sex-related materials taken from offenders.
   If there are collectors, there must be dealers, although "each considers the other a necessary evil". Some of them enjoy wonderful items going through their hands and being passed on (at profit) with no impulse to own any of them; others buy and sell to make a living, but also to improve their own collections.
   
   There are tales of many other collectors and collections here. Cynthia Plaster Caster has spent decades making plaster casts of famous people's penises, and has branched out into breasts. There's the small collection of lotus shoes, the kind that were worn by Chinese women whose feet had been bound. There's a collection of 80,000 girlie magazines. There is a large group of people who collect erotic book plates, and commission them. Nicholson eventually helps us realize that we are all sex collectors; we may not look for something to put on our shelves, but we do, if health and opportunity allow, amass sexual experiences. He also comes to the conclusion that he is a bit of collector himself, not necessarily of the type of item the more generous of the collectors profiled here sent him away with, but a collector of sex collectors, an activity that has involved such familiar endeavors as finding interesting examples, doing negotiations, lucking out on good finds, and other things that collectors here do. His is a unique collection, and it is generously shared in a breezy, amusing book.

No comments about Warman's North American Indian Artifacts: Identification and Price Guide (North American Indian Artifacts).