Antiques Collectibles Books

I have to disagree with the previous reviewer--this book is FILLED with pictures in the back half of the book. The pictures are disappointingly all black and white, but it keeps the cost down I suppose. This is the best resource for visual identification of styles from Egyptian through Twentieth Century that I have seen, and I have seen quite a lot of them. The front half of the book is very detailed information about each of the styles as well as specific pieces within each style. It's not something you can read from cover to cover, as the details would quickly overcome you. But it is a wonderful reference book for anyone who wants to be able to look up a particular style, read about it, and look at many pictures to visually understand general characteristics of the style.

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO FURNITURE STYLES is a well written guide to the history of different periods of furniture. It states the history of the period and crucial pieces with a description of the piece. There are very few pictures, so if you are looking for a guide to train your eye to note characteristics of period pieces, this will not help you. If you are looking for a written description of the pieces, this book is for you.

A College textbook or reference-type book. Comprehensive--fine print. Seemed a good read, but I didn't like the set-up. All text was in the front, and the examples and photos were grouped in the back. One would need to flip back and forth to view examples of the subject matter. Didn't work for me.

This is the only reason I gave it a low rating, and returned the book.

As a college educator in the history of architecture, furniture and the decorative arts I think the Boger is a very good overall text both to students and interested others. Information on furnitre prior to Gothic is the weakest, and would reccomend other texts to satisfy those needs. Photographic reproduction quality in some instances barely passable.

The nice, lock-in feature prevents your coins from falling out of the folder, while holding them in a nice layout. The only drawback is you cannot see the reverse of the coins when they're in the folder.

I am a collector of WW11 items and this has come in very handy for Identifing items, when the tags have been removed from items, A lot of history of the item and would recommend this book to others. There are better books out there but this one is very usful for the novice.

Warman's World War II Collectibles book is very informative but it leaves out some gear that could be studied, like tents and the gear that goes along with with tents. I realize that covering so much more material in a single volume could be prohibitive.

Excellent reference for the military collectible "buff". Doesn't have EVERYTHING, but there's lots of good information for you to value items you have, or want to procure...Worth the money...

Being a intermediate collector, I thought this book was great for identifying and giving a good price guide for a great deal of WWII collectibles. Advanced collectors probably would not appreciate the overview of many subjects, but this book plainly states it is not specific in all areas. I would definetly take this to shows for ID help for sure! Great buy!

I did not intend to write this review today because I just obtained the book today. I found it by chance at a book store and since I am a specialist in World War II numismatics (coins and especially paper money and more), I bought it. When I got home, I found that there were no reader reviews here so I thought that I shold put in at least and short/temporary one.
There is nothing on numismatics in the book which you might think would turn me off, but I did not really expect to find much if anything on numismatics. This or any book can only be an introduction to WWII items. Heck, our own book on just the numismatics of the war is over 800 pages. So far I have found the text satisfying if brief. Graf lists many hundreds of items in several chapters. The illustrations are excellent. I learned a lot and expect to learn much more. I will try to write a more detailed review later.

This item works like you would expect it to: it holds onto your money. It's quite difficult at times to get the coins into the spots, but they won't fall out!

This was a wonderfully informative book with information that dozens of other books on this subject do not cover. Also suggested is the sequel, Costume Jewelry 202.

I am so tickled and honored to have jewelry from my private collection featured in Julia's books. This new Second Edition of the "Collecting Costume Jewelry 101" book features a bright new cover with colorful layouts and 200+ new photographs and additional designers. Julia and I have been jewelry friends for many years and her incredible knowledge in this field has helped me form an extensive collection. So jewelry lovers, it is time to set aside the original edition that is dog-eared & note filled, and add this new second edition which features many new photographs and designers that are not in the first edition! As her other books, it is a great learning tool that will teach you so much about forming a fabulous costume jewelry collection of your own! She is so thorough in her research which you will see with all the updated information and new values. We can only hope there will be a 303 version in the future!

"Collecting Costume Jewellery 101" is essentially a beginners' guide to the main makers of (American) designer costume jewellery. Other information is also given, such as how to repair and clean costume jewellery and what to do with unwanted jewellery, all of which would be useful to a person starting a costume jewellery collection. However, the vast majority of this book are devoted to summaries of the main jewellery making companies.

For most designers, the summary given is brief, comprising the dates of operation of the company; a brief history of the company; the signature look of the product; and buying recommendations. Nevertheless, this is more than enough for a beginning collector. Greater detail is given about Coro, Kramer, Trifari and Weiss, however, four designers whom Carroll recommends for beginning collectors. Numerous color photographs are also provided for each designer, with values given for each piece of jewellery.

For people seeking a more detailed discussion of designer costume jewellery, I recommend the sequel to this book, "Collecting Costume Jewellery 202", although both books are well worth investing in.

I wish to express my gratitude to so many generous people who helped with this Second Edition of "Collecting Costume Jewelry 101:the basics of starting, building & upgrading".

First, I want to thank my readers. I am warmed by the wonderful feedback I have received from beginning collectors on the first edition of this book. Based on this feedback, I was careful when working on the second edition to leave in place the easy-to-use format. Thank you readers!

A warm thank you must always be reserved for my husband who once again offered me his support and his excellent camera skills. Thank you sweetheart!

Next I want to thank my friends (especially Debi Reece and Dave Mayer) who shared their knowledge and collections with me so I could add over 200 new photographs to this new edition. Thank you dear friends!

Finally, I want to thank the staff at Collector Books for giving me the opportunity to write a Second Edition. With their help this second edition has many beautiful enhancements. For example:

- Collector Books created a hot new cover and vibrant new interior color scheme. I adore the bright colors and I hope you do too. While maintaining the easy-to-use alphabetical arrangement of makers, the interior design is also updated.
- Over 200 new photographs have been added providing additional examples of jewelry designs from many makers.
- The historical information and information about marks is updated.
- eBay selling changes frequently so Chapter 6 - "Upgrading Your Collection" is fully updated.
- A new chapter is added featuring 13 makers not shown in the first edition.
- The popular "Marked by Style" chapter, showing unmarked jewelry attributed by the style to specific makers, is revamped and expanded.
- Of course the values have been updated.
Thank you Collector Books!

I love jewelry, I love collecting, and I love this new edition. I hope you do too. Warm regards, Julia C. Carroll

Hang on to your hats, jewelry lovers!!!! This is a book you MUSTN'T MISS!!! Julia C Carroll never disappoints collectors at any level of expertise. Once again, in this visually stunning new book she grabs us with beautiful pages in a logical and practical teaching layout that keeps us turning those pages!! The pictures are generous in volume and so well done you can examine the details in each piece. This new upgrade is a MUST HAVE-beautiful, bright, full of the great educational info of the original "101", but with so many more pictures and facts!! I find other authors' guides nice to thumb through, but you really learn to identify and nail down pieces out in the real world by studying Julia's "101" and "202". My collection is now full of incredible pieces I learned to look for only because of her great books. If you want the pride of knowing what to buy, and how to not overpay, buy and study this wonderfully updated book...even if you have the original "101", ADD THIS TO YOUR LIBRARY!!! Then sign on to buy her "202". Thanks, Julia C!! How about a "303"??????!!!!

If you love to learn about historical clothing than this is the book for you.

This is a good history of both mens and womens undergarments. It is solidly written, with more focus on fact and logical history. Not a lot of wit and humor, more writing than pictures or sketches. But a wealth of knowledge spanning medieval times to the 1920's. The author does a good job of illustrating what the purpose of various undergarments were in their time. What effect they were meant to achieve, and the illustrations and photos are plentiful enough to visually support the written material. Though none of it is in color. This would be a good book for research purposes.

In agreement with some other posters, I found this book disappointing. One obvious omission is covering the Middle Ages to 1939 and not mentioning "codpiece". It would have been more useful as well separated by men's/women's over each time period.

I am a costume designer and have had this book for over 10 years.
I recently purchased a copy for one of my student workers who is now
studying costume design at Evansville, IN. I have found it to be
a wonderful source for accurate information on period undergarments.
It has consise information including many photos and illustrations.

I think this book could have been more in-depth and would have benefitted from more illustrations, but it's a good startng source for reenactors, fashion historians, and people writing about various historical periods. Amazing and interesting overview of what's under there and down there through the ages.

This is one of the first books in a long list of fashion books that I own. It is one of my favorites. It is a bit academic as another reviewer mentioned, but I feel that's an important part of what makes this book a keeper. It covers European, mostly English fashion of the aristocracy. There are some great historical anecdotes. My favorites involve Empress Eugenie lounging audaciously around in her red knickers, and some about the rare daring lady to show up to the Ascott races in "pants". The writing isn't as witty as other books, but the historical detail is fantastic. There are quite a few pictures as well. The arrangement of the pictures and text is chronological and very easy to follow. The only drawback is that the pages are matte and not glossy. And the spine falls apart after a few years of hard labor.

A good and informative book. Just looking through it I learned a few things that I hadn't ever heard or noticed before, such as the way that tightlacing of corsets doesn't seem to have been too common before the late 1860s.
The book is very reasonably priced. The only trouble, which probably, were it to be fixed, would make the book cost a lot more, is that I often wish the photographs were printed in better quality.

It is a rare opportunity to see how people dressed in reality so far in the past. By contrast, fashion plates always show the garment in its perfect form, portraits are idealized, and original illustrations change the proportions, whether purposefully or not, to fit the times of the artist, not that of the garment. Photos do not lie.

The pictures feature mostly upper-class people in attractive poses, and the reader can enjoy seeing these people in their clothes, in a variety of settings, in the middle of different activities (cycling, skating, boating, traveling through snowy mountains, playing tennis...). The people sitting for portraits are looking their very best, trying out different positions, picking their finest clothes. As for the garments themselves, the pictures are clear and attractive, and the details are so telling!

The text dissects the pictures and explains costume of the era in detail, discussing the general trends, exceptions, class distinctions, and how the people in these old photos relate to all this. A Very good book for a costume historian.

This compact book is full of photos and it has great explanations from beginning to end. The author explains carefully every photograph, and also each of the fashions worn by the subjects.

If you love old photos of Victorian and Edwardian fashions, then this is a nice book to own for your library. (Also, the price is reasonable).

Dover Publications, monarchs of 19th-century fashion surveys, have hit another one clean out of the park with this superb examination of Victorian and Edwardian fashion from the coronation of Victoria to the early 1900's. Originally published in England in the early 1960's as "The Mirror of Reality", this book was acquired and republished by Dover in a handy paperback edition up to their usual high physical standards (Dover is well-known for the high quality of its paperback books). Alison Gernsheim delves into every single aspect of costume in the period, from buttons to boots, and the accompanying B&W photos, well over a hundred of them, are worth even more words. The fashion-plate books such as Stella Blum's "Harper's Bazar 1867-1898" and Joanne Olian's "Victorian and Edwardian Fashions from La Mode Illustree" are absolutely indispensable for showing the fashions of the era as their designers conceived them, but you need - I say again, _need_ - this book to see how those dresses looked in the real world.