Antiques Collectibles Books

As a lover of the old days of baseball (prior to the 1970's) , and with an interest in various types of artifacts pertaining to the old days, this book wonderfully broadened my horizons. The sections on baseball cards was especially fascinating for me as i do some collecting to add to some as i had as a kid (50's-60's).
would recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in the old days of baseball or collects baseball memorabilia.

I purchased this as a gift and the recipient was thrilled with it. I did sneak a peak before giving it away and enjoyed it immencely.

A very well done book. Big glossy pictures of some of the greatest Baseball artifacts in America. Probably the closest I will get to seeing these in person.

Stephen Wong has created a drop-dead gorgeous look at some of the game's great artifacts, and many will be surprised to learn that they are not at the Baseball Hall of Fame nor even at the Smithsonian (despite the book's title). The game's artifacts extend way beyond the cards and gimcrack collectibles sold at the ballpark, and Wong has deftly toggled his focus from collectible to collector and back again, providing a memorable prose portrait of the lively game played off the field. I cannot recommend this brilliantly conceived book highly enough.

This beautiful book belongs in every baseball enthusiast's library, but it would be a mistake to keep it on the shelves. Author Stephen Wong has partnered with the Smithsonian to publish the most stunning book on baseball on the market. It deserves to be on your coffee table not only because of its wonderful photographs but also due to the wonderfully rich way he presents the history of the game. Wong gained remarkable access to the sport's foremost collectors, combing through hundreds of images and memorabilia items. The payoff is tremendous for anyone with an interest in baseball or, for that matter, in American history and culture. Readers will learn the essential facts about the game, and the fascinating tidbits, such as the origins of the curve ball. They then get to see remarkable shots, some most unusual - from folk art statues to Don Larsen's enshrined shoes from his perfect game to the bricks of former stadiums. In fact, this book should be placed in the Hall of Fame!

Excellent book well done. Wonderful display of head vases. He has divided his ladies into catagories. He includes cleaning tips, repair tips, head vase websites and best of all and added plus he has a numerical index in the back of his book very very helpfull to finding that special lady fast when you are checking out prices on Ebay. If I could only purchase one collection book I would purchase Dave Barrons book.

I was a little unhappy with the book. I had inherited 2 original ladyhead
vases from a deceased Aunt. I couldn't find either one in the book. I
wanted more info on the collecting of the vases and the book was lacking
there too. I should have gotten another one that went into more detail.

The book is in great condition and exactly what I exected and useful to me. However the process after the purchase from Amazon takes far to long. A month for a book is rediculous.

For the amateur to the experienced, this is a fabulous reference guide for all headvase collectors! Definite must-have !

Quick and excellent transaction. Nice book and well packaged.
Thanks

Lillian Baker's "100 Years of Collectible Jewelry" might help you to find your way, but only barely. The small opening section, with a brief history of jewelry, may be helpful to the novice...but is by no means complete or even truly interesting to the seasoned collector. It will give you an overview of jewelry styles and some of the historic events that prompted them, but will leave you wanting more. (Much more.) The photographs in the book are clear, but very small; not wildly exciting nor representative of all periods and jewelry styles. However Ms. Baker does go into areas not generally covered...hair combs, hat pins and beaded purse are investigated although in a flash in the pan sort of way. Possibly the major advantage of the book is the Glossary of Terms. If you are brand spanking new to collecting jewelry, this may be the most helpful and informative portion of the book. Overall I would recommend the book for it's reasonable price and easy to chew small bites of information, but if you are interested in a compelling, in-depth view of the history of jewelry, this book is not for you.

This wonderful "sequel" to the earlier Cirillo book is even more comprehensive and the photographs are excellent...a "must have" for serious collectors and fans of silver from the American Southwest!

Once again Dexter Cirillo has created an outstanding book on Native American Indian Jewelry. The jewelry throughout is photographed beautifully and includes pieces from established, as well as up and coming Native artists. This book is a definite must for any collector of Native jewelry.

This, her latest book on Southwestern Indian Jewelry by Dexter Cirillo, is a well written, finely illustrated and impressive volume that I would recommend to anyone interested in this beautiful art form. However, while the list of artists featured in the book is long and contain most of the big names in contemporary Native American jewelry, there is at least one glaring omission. It is inconceivable to me that any serious author on this subject would fail to include Ervin P. Tsosie who, in my and most collectors opinion, is without an equal in the art of mosaic inlays today. This omission, deliberate or not, is a blemish on an otherwise excellent book. Omissions, sadly, also marred her great first book, published in 1992, failing as it did to include two of the giants in early Southwestern Indian jewelry, Leo Poblano and Lambert Homer.Southwestern Indian Jewelry: Crafting New Traditions

Many years ago, too many to mention, during visits to the national parks in the West, I purchased beautifully hand-crafted "pawn" Indian jewelry. Although, thankfully, "pawn" is no longer sold in our parks, I still treasure and wear what I own. So, you can imagine my surprise when I picked up Dexter Cirillo's wonderful and authoritative book on the new Southwestern jewelry being created by today's Indian artists - pieces totally different but none-the-less as creative, unique and expressive as mine. However, this is much more than a picture book. Although the photography is dazzling and certainly moves you easily through the book, it's the text that continues to hold my interest. The stories, anecdotes and explanations make me feel like I know these artists intimately and can relate to the historical references just as they have. My favorite piece? An equisite necklace, which has nine four-sided reversible beads inlaid with 36 distinct bird designs created by Jake H. Livingston. And, the delighful inlaid holiday turkey pin made by M. Dale Edaakie - I love it. As I continue to read about these 85 artists, I am already planning a trip to the Southwest and will use as my guide the jewelry and Indian market sources provided by Cirillo in the back of the book. While, arguably, I may not find many of the jewelry pieces pictured in the book affordable for the budget-conscious consumer, this book "Southwestern Indian Jewelry, Crafting New Traditions" is a bargain for anyone interested in the Southwest, Indian artists and their crafts, history of the New West, fashion, jewelry, stones and gems, and, just a good read. Congratulations to Cirillo and Doty for a fine and scholarly work.

Good Value. Need to be handle it carefully to prevent the panels from coming apart. However, Elmer's Glue solved that problem (I think permanently).

No need for anything more expensive, as this item fulfilled my desires for saving the State quarters just fine and completely.

I RECOMMEND THESE COLORFUL FOLDERS FOR YOUR STATE QUARTER COLLECTION. IT IS A CONVENIENT SIZE FOR STORAGE AND HANDLING. IT HOLDS THE COINS VERY SECURE AND HAS VERY INTERESTING INFORMATION ABOUT THE COINS INSIDE THE FOLDER.

It was a nice product. The only thing that I didn't like was that it was difficult to insert the quarters.

I was disappointed in the cost and the size of this product. I could have gotten a better and larger unit for less money from my local bank.

This is an excellent A-Z book on everything you would want to know about carousels. It's very well presented and very informative and makes a great coffee table book. Highly recommended if you're interested in the subject.

This book is a must have for any carousel enthusiast or anyone interested in the art of wood carving. All major carvers/manufacturers of the golden age of carousel building are covered. The photography is wonderful and there is a census of operating carousels in the back of the book. Since the book is written in 1986, many of the carousels that are listed have dissappeared. Check National Carousel Association for an updated list.

OK I gotta give the book a great review as one of the authors is a very dear friend. (Marianne Stevens) I love the photos of the carousel that she purchased from my cousins!

Seriously though this book is an absolute must have for anybody not only interested in Carousels but also in amusement park history. It's a wonderful coffe table book with to die for color photographs and fascinating information.

Even children will love this book! It's beautifully done with glossy photos. Absolutely super.

Warren Crandall

Awesome book! An absolute must for anyone interested in American Carousel Art! Loaded with close up photos of all the love of labor that went into these beautiful animals! Brings back many memories of the Great Danbury Fair in Danbury, CT which now unfortunately is a shopping mall.

This an excellent book giving a good insight into the history of carousels from their early beginnings. Crammed with beautiful photographs of the various animals and some rare photographs of the carvers and their workshops. A must reference book if you are into carousels.

This sort of book might have been very helpful if you could rely on the pictures. It gives relatively many drawings for each period (though too few if you want to focus on one exact date), but I could never find out where the pictures came from, what were they based on, as I found so many obvious mistakes and fantasy elements that for a serious costumer, this would be an absolutely terrible and useless book. Besides, the pictures are not very well drawn, the illustrator wasn't as skilled as another painter of untrustworthy costumes, A.Racinet.

This could be only help for people who want to have a general "overview" of the fashion history and its changes through decades, but I must add that the dresses depicted aren't always very typical for the period, which can spoil the general impression.

I got this book several years ago when I only had a minor interest in costumer design, now it's my career and I still find it useful. Peacock's illustrations are clear but relatively simple and great for a period overview and for sketching and silhouette references.

The only thing I think this book is lacking is descriptive text and breakdown of the class of the people represented. This can't be your only research but should definitely be in the collection of anyone with even the slightest interest in costume and fashion history

Have used this book many times as a resource when making costurmes for the Renaissance Fair as well as for the local Model A Ford club. Clear, easy to interpret pictures and excellent captions.

I don't own the book, just saw it in a bookstore and flipped through it. The book contains sketches of male and female costume drawn in good detail, but definitely incorporates fantasy elements. For example, according to the sketches all female garments through 1400 have sleeves extending past the hand. I also did not notice any nationalities mentioned with the drawings. Like I said though, it was a flip through in a book store, and I'm not an expert. I just thought since there were no reviews yet, I'd give people an idea of what to expect.

Peacock puts together a book that focuses itself on British fashion of the royalty from 1066 through 2005. Pages are filled with designs that the royalty as well as the wealthy would have worn during this time period. They say a picture is worth 1000 words, and this book contains over 1000 pictures to demonstrate the changes in fashion over the years.

The book has very little text in it. Each page is filled with 8 different designs, typically 4 are male fashion designs, and 4 are for women. What I do like about these designs is that each one has notes about trim, how garmets were fastened, hair styles, and information regarding proper head dress is also given. I feel if you are trying to recreate one of these designs this book would be helpful in getting the small details correct.

While short on words, this book has many sketches, and much information is contained on each sketch. There is very little text, or any form of long dry reading here. You may even wished he spent more time going over the design changes in text. I feel this book does an excellent job of giving someone a feel for what clothing looked like in the time periods covered in this book.

There is nothing like great images and insight to bring back a long ago era. This book does a great job at setting the stage! Buy it and enjoy!

l have always been fascinated by the 1950s, it was like no other era in history,The American dream, good old fashion values, and families.It was portrayed as an era of blissful harmony and peacful existence for all. When l came across this book by charles phoenix, l was delighted, you cannot be amazed by this book of ordinary people, capturing their lives, on film in excellent quality. The fact that these pictures still remain, in wonderful quality taken by amateur photographers is truefully historical. If you never lived through the 1950s, and l didnt, because lm 35 years old, and your only glimpse of this era is in the movies, then this book is a real gem. His other book, californialand, is equally great book, which he showes more of these great photos of ordinary people living in the 50s. Great historical books.

Americana the Beautiful is a trip down memory lane; especially for us Baby Boomers.

These old shapshots are great! What a wonderful trip we took every summer when we visited my mother's family in South Carolina. Remember those luggage racks on station wagons? I remember being on the New Jersey Turnpike one time and luggage thtat was tied to the roof blew off. Dad had to pull our station wagon to the side of the road and pick up a suitcase full of diapers for my younest brother!

I have fond memories of the Dairy Queen and the Good Humor mah. The smell was sweet mixed with raw exhaust fumes! What great times those were!

Charles Phoenix has done it again! We've loved each of his books, and the last few we've bought almost as soon as he released them. This one has even more of Charles' trademark old, but crisp, bright and clear, color Kodakchrome slides, all taken by amateur photographers like you and me (or our parents and grandparents!), from all across America, and all with brief, nondistracting, colorful, very witty and informative commentary. It's a perfect gift for a "Fourth of July" Party. You'll laugh as well as be a little saddened by this colorful, visual reminder of our treasured, more innocent and playful past. Cheers and thanks once again to Charles Phoenix. And if you get a chance, check out his website and go see one of his hilarious live shows or tours.

Another selection of snaps rescued by Charles Phoenix just before they might have ended up in the local landfill. In the same format as his excellent 'Southern Californialand' (ISBN 1883318424) and so much better than the earlier 'God Bless Americana' book. The two hundred amateur slides feature a rich seam of everyday life full of white middle class detail (which of course does raise the question: didn't colored folk take photos back then or perhaps they never junk them).

Overall I thought the photo selection was fascinating and grouping them in themes worked well. The last few pages have some intriguing architectural and transport slides like the 1964 flying saucer style State Capitol Bank in Oklahoma City or the late fifties General Motors Aerotrain pulling into a station. On page thirty-six onward there are several pages of people at home showing all kinds of domestic activity, food on tables, kitchens, watching home movies or just enjoying company. It's interesting looking at these photos because they are so unlike anything taken by professionals though sometimes the composition, lighting and color does lift them out of the mundane.

Like 'Southern Californialand' the editorial format works well with photos one to a page, allowing for a deep caption or several slides butted together. My only criticism is that sometimes out of focus images are too large, for example the soft-focus Jefferson Drive-in on page ninety-seven would have worked better much smaller or even rejected. Also captions frequently describe in words what the reader can obviously see in the picture but fortunately many of them also have plenty of historical background detail about things in the photos.

Charles Phoenix has hit on a successful publishing genre and there surely will be more titles to come but until the next one you can follow the latest finds on his website.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

I have collected the Knives annual books since 2003, after attending my first "Custom knife show" in Denver Co. I went home and started to make and buy equipment to forge my own knives. Now 5 years have passed, I'm making knives, I know personally some of the very people who display their knives in the pages of these books, and especially for the 2008 edition, I have one of MY knives in the book! Page 121! I totally agree with D. Haines, a custom forged knife will out perform any store-bought, factory stamped out knife. There are lots of books and magazines that show all the "factory made" "cookie-cutter" mas-produced knives available,, but where do you find the "one of a kind", custom hand made knives, and in COLOR?? Knives annual, thats where! ---Jon

We get this book every year and it has never been a bad choice! Full of information and photos

This continues to keep the custom knifemaker or enthusiast up to date on what other makers are producing. It is also the only (and very good) catalog of makers. I have all editions since 1980 when it was first published, and find it invaluable as a reference.

I loved this as I do all the other knives editions. I make knives as a hobby and always have one of these books close at hand for ideas. I must say i disagree with the last reviewer giving it two stars, if you wanted everyday work knives there are numerous companies out there that would be willing to send you a catalogue, if that is what you are into. I feel this edition may be superior to previous editions. In the past some photo's were simply pasted in from professional photographers, now most of the knives have a plain white background, some with multiple views. If you want to know what the professional knifemakers have been up to in the last year or two, this is a great resorce. Enjoy.

Great as always! I make custom carry knives as a hobby as well and this annual series of books has always been a great inspiration to me. In reference to the review written by Charlie, I would take him with a grain of salt, just look at his other reviews. A typical self proclaimed know it all but most likely just full of hot air. Any hand made knife loving built following the old time trusted ways of knife making will out perform any "off the shelve" knife hands down. Don't believe me just put Charlie's K-bar in a vice and bend it past 90 degrees watching it snap like a twig, which by the way is the one of the first test of a knife maker. The greatest compliment I ever received was from a man who received one of my Damascus knives as a gift and later told me he had "skun" 25 hogs without having to re-sharpen the knife. Yes many of the knives in this book would be too beautiful to carry, but many of them are just plain high performance steel that I would be proud to carry on my side. To sum it up, I own well over 50 knife making books and videos and would rate my Knives Annuals some of most important I own. In my humble opinion I think that any knife lover would love this book as well.