1 comments about Start Collecting Coins (Start Collecting).

1. Book is geared towards kids - not too complicated. But at the same time a comprehensive and informative read. I enjoyed reading it as a parent. The book includes The history of money, how coins are made, History of American coins, collecting basics, and care of the collection.

No comments about Radio Tubes and Boxes of the 1920's.

1 comments about American Miners Carbide Lamps: A Collector's Guide to American Carbide Mine Lighting.

1. This book, which was published in 1987, contains a wealth of information on carbide lamps. Carbide lamps were the main source of illumination for miners from about 1900 to 1950. They were cheap, reliable, and, best of all, they produced a lot of light! These lamps were also used by a variety of outdoor enthusiasts, including hunters, fishermen, and cave explorers.
   
   This book lists the many brands of carbide lamps that were produced and has photographs and drawings of many of them. Of special interest to the collector, Appendix A gives a list of United States Carbide Lamp patents, arranged by date. Appendix B gives a list of all the known "Brand Names" and rates each brand as to rarity from 1 to 10, with 1 being very common and 10 extremely rare. This is especially valuable to the beginning collector.
   
   This book is hardback, with a dust cover. There are a number of interesting old photos of lamps being used in mines and caves. Very little has been published on American carbide lamps and this is a wonderful source of information.

1 comments about Collectible Vernon Kilns: Identification and Value Guide (Collectible Vernon Kilns).

1. This book is a must have for anyone interested in collecting any of the numerous shapes and/or patterns of pottery made by Vernon Kilns. I won't repeat what's said above in the book description or product details, but I will add that many years of obvious painstaking research has culminated in Maxine Nelson's 4th book on the subject.
   
   I had no idea what a challenge it would be to complete a collection of dinnerware in just ONE of the patterns ("Gingham", a green and yellow plaid design) that was made. Even with this book in hand you will never be 100% sure of all the pieces that exist in whatever pattern you're attempting to collect. In my opinion, the "not knowing" is part of the challenge that only serves to make collecting this truly versatile line of wares that much more fun, interesting, and rewarding.
   
   By the way, this book has 320 pages, not 192 as listed above. Sadly, this book is already out of print. However, at the time of this writing quite a few copies are still available.
   
   If you're a fanatic, you'll want to find copies of the newsletter "Vernon Views" printed from 1981 through 2003 by Pat Faux and Nancy Scadeberg, but we'll save that for another time...

1 comments about Filmmakers Series - Henri Langlois (Filmmakers Series).

1. "Henri Langlois, First Citizen of Cinema" ( beautifully produced with an excellent translation by Lisa Nesselson) is a fascinating account of Langlois' life and a captivating history of the Cinémathèque Française. More important, it is, in many ways, the story of contemporary French cinema. The book's authors, Glenn Myrent, an American in Paris, and Georges P. Langlois, Henri's brother, give us insight into French attitudes about film and show us to what extent Langlois had an important impact on the new wave directors and the generation of filmmakers that followed. In fact, Langlois almost single handily influenced the way that the French perceive film: cinema as an art form. The 7th art.

   On a personal note, this was quite clear to me as a young film student sitting in the first rows of "La Cinémathèque Française" in the mid-sixties. Not only was I surrounded by would be filmmakers but also in the audience one would often see François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, Susan Schiffman to name just a few. And there in the front row would be the young Bertrand Tavernier or the teenage Patrice Lecomte or Elio Zarmati. I remember standing in line outside the Cinémathèque and seeing Henri Langlois surrounded by new wave directors and film buffs passionately talking about films and filmmakers. It reminded me how, a few years earlier as university undergraduate, I would talk with fellow students about poets and poetry or writers and books with the same passion, the same enthusiasm. At the cinémathèque, I would watch, between 3pm and midnight, anything and everything: Chinese films with Czech subtitles, silent documentaries, Chaplin and Keaton comedies, whatever. I suppose we were the last generation of filmmakers who could be truly called "les enfants de la cinémathèque" - children of the cinémathèque. Glenn Myrent, in this excellent American edition, has managed to capture the magical atmosphere of La Cinémathèque that I knew. Not an easy task.

   I, like many European filmmakers of my generation, am indebted to Henri Langlois. He communicated to me his passion for the cinéma and his cinémathèque was the single most important thing that helped me decided to become a filmmaker.

   In my first feature, LA NUIT DE SAINT GERMAIN DES PRES, I have a small scene in which one of the protagonists organizes a screening at his home of an old 1932 cult movie, Ernest Beaumont Schoedsack and Irving Pichel's "THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME", starring Joel McCrea and Fay Wray, for left bank film buffs. In a way, this little scene was my way of saying "merci" to Henri Langlois and a kind of secret tribute to La Cinémathèque Française. And now 25 years later, "merci" Glenn Myrent and Georges Langlois for such an informative and entertaining book. Vive la Cinémathèque!

   - Bob Swaim /Paris, 9-99

5 comments about The Prints of Isoda Koryusai: Floating World Culture and Its Consumers in Eighteenth-Century Japan.

1. I found the book to be very useful in understanding ukiyoe prints from novel perspectives--especially consumer patterns and, more importantly, in terms of how artists were influenced by one another. Koryusai has long been overlooked and this book helps set the record straight. I've read most of the books in English on woodblock prints and this one gives us a refreshingly new approach. I like the way the author deals with culture, the circulation of images, women (I'm a woman and I detect no misogyny--as another reviewer suggests...), sex, and popular culture. It has loads of useful information for all levels of reader. I might never use the appendices, but they should be welcomed by scholars in the area of Edo art and culture. I highly recommend this book ! I only wish that there were more color illustrations, but for that I'll just have to go to the many OTHER Japanese print books and museum catalogues that illustrate Koryusai in color--but say nothing new or very useful about him!



2. The review by "a reader from New York" would have more credibility if it were not anonymous -- why is it not signed? I've talked to a dozen scholars in the field, all have welcomed the book and emphasized its usefulness. Both as raw scholarly material and in its analysis, the book brings an artist and his delightful works out from under a shadow. The 100-page Appendix is an extraordinarily complete compendium of Koryusai's oeuvre -- Hockley's research has pushed the number of known works from about 500 to over 2500. The diacritical problem appears to be limited to a single (repeated) example. Though highly biased, I am not alone in considering the book attractively presented.



3. Not worth $60. Most of the black & white illustrations look smudgy, and the appendix is pretty incoherent. You really have to work hard for some of the information.



4. Hockley rightly returns to consider the place of the consumer in the market for popular prints, and it would have been beneficial if the argument had been further developed. It should have considerable impact on the field, but it is overall not as groundbreaking as has been claimed.



5. Isoda Koryusai produced thousands of designs between 1769 and 1781, a crucial period in the Japanese print tradition era, and though he was honored in Japan for his works, he's been largely neglected by western art scholars. Allen Hockley's The Prints Of Isoda Koryusai deftly analyzes over 2,000 of Koryusai's designs, surveying his influence as a minor Edo-period artist and arguing that Koryusai excelled in his output and his creation of popular commodities. The Prints Of Isoda Koryusai is essential reading for any student of Japanese printmaking history and artists.

1 comments about Legal Guide to Buying and Selling Art and Collectibles.

1. Armen Vartian knows more about collectibles than any attorney in the world. Whenever we have a legal question, we always call Armen.

1 comments about Children Figurines of Bisque and Chinawares, 1850-1950.

1. Almost every page has full color photos. Included is maker's marks identification information, as well as a value guide in the back. If you're interested in figurines, this book contains some valuable information about who made what where. Here are some of the kinds of figurines in this book: piano babies, Heubach, Fairing pieces, snowbabies, Frozen Charolettes, nodders, half-dolls, Occupied Japan. This is the most comprehensive guide to china children figurines I've ever found. I bought the book and then became a collector. It might make a collector out of you, too!

2 comments about Bud Hastins Avon Collectors' Encyclopedia: The Official Guide for Avon Bottle & Cpc Collectors (Bud Hastin's Avon and Collector's Encyclopedia).

1. As a whole it is fantastic. But, by not listing the men's by name, such as "Leather"; it caused me a lot of time and trouble trying to find it.



2. I AM VERY PLEASED WITH THE BOOK I PURCHASED FROM AMAZON.COM THIS BOOK DID GIVE ME ALL THE INFORMATION I WAS LOOKING FOR. AND DOING BUSINESS WITH AMAZON.COM WAS VERY GOOD, AND THE PRICES AND SHIPPING WERE VERY SATISFACTORY.

2 comments about Tribal Rugs: A Buyer's Guide.

1. If you wouldn't know a Kilim if it bit you in the leg, you'll soon be able to do a lot more than just bluff your way in the world of rugs! This book takes you through it all quite painlessly!

   Beautifully illustrated with full colour pictures of rugs from all around the world, it is a pleasure to leaf through as much as to read for its detailed information on what makes these wonderful rugs what they are.

   Maps, texts and illustrations take you through the cultural and practical aspects of rug design and manufacture. For the professional dealer or the enthusiastic amateur like me, this is an indispensable book! Anyone who has read it will know how much better equipped they are to snap up the best buys with confidence.




2. ...I disagree with the author saying that "every rug needs a degree of breathing space". I realize that is a Westernized viewpoint, and tastes vary...but these beautiful one-of-a-kind works of art were originaly intended to cover a tent floor...to the point of overlapping at times ! My preference is to see them in close proximity to each other, a glorious mosaic of rich color and design.
   I also disagree with the statement that the rug has to "match its surroundings", which is like buying a painting to match the sofa. To my way of thinking, a piece of art, whether a painting or rug, should give one an uplifting thrill, not "match" something.

   The first 4 chapters are on everything from detailed descriptions of how rugs are made, where to buy them, their care and repair, and the ethnic groups worldwide that make them.
   This is followed by brilliantly colored illustrations of 44 rugs and 3 bags, from the marvelous Belouch animal design that graces the cover to a Navaho pictorial flatweave.

   Chapter 5 is about the designs, and how to identify them. Chapter 6 is on the regions (maps are included). 7 and 8 are on the tribal groups, from those in Adraskand, to the Yurks, and describes the patterns, colors, and quality produced by each group.

   So though I don't agree with the decorating ideas, it's 5 stars for the research and remarkable detail that has been put into this volume. It's an excellent primer, as well as a good reference book.