Antiques Collectibles Books

This is the greatest book, and so inspiring. From goofy characters to pinup girls and more. Perfect size and a steal for the price. On par with a Taschen release, you can rest assured Beauchamp has the passion. I'm so glad I got this book- Grab it.

I think all the books I've seen on this subject merit high praise, but Striking Images stands out for its layout and focus on the artwork itself. The juxtaposed covers allow for many great samples to be consumed by the eyes at once, while other blown up images assume a Pop Art painting quality. So do not mistake this for a book on vintage matchbooks; this is about the art on the cover. At this price I feel this book's a deal considering the design and thought devoted to it by Mr. Beauchamp - well done! I've encountered his unique passion and perspective on other ephemeral subjects in various issues of Blab!, another book I've collected and highly recommend!!

As the back cover says 'Striking Images is a must see collection of vintage covers...More than 500 images inside!' Good enough for me because I love books about popular visual culture and this one could join the other three I already have about match art.

However I was rather disappointed in the book because of its production. The main problem is that every matchbook has been reduced to a square of either the front or back and then presented butted up (mostly) four to a page so they hardly look like matchbooks at all. It's as if a book about stamps had all the perforations cut off and then joined together. Many are shown whole page, making them too big and over-emphasising the crude printing quality. The book really ends up looking like a collection of badly printed, colorful and exuberant, advertising graphics. Though divided into eight sections there are no page numbers except on the chapter openers and with the covers crammed into all the pages it is annoyingly difficult to find a particular section.

It could have looked so much better like the earlier Chronicle Matchbook Art by Yosh Kashiwabara. Here many of the matchbooks have their front and back shown but the main thing is that they have plenty of page space surrounding each one. Another book: Close Cover Before Striking: The Golden Age of Matchcover Art (Recollectibles) is a handsomely designed title with thirteen chapters of well presented covers. Both books show how fascinating these throw-way bits of art are.

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

Even if you don't care about matchbook art or matchbook collecting, this book is highly recommended. It collects these beautiful pieces of pop culture ephemera and presents them as art, which they truly are. Each page packs a graphic punch that will knock your socks off. Not only are the endless variety of matchbook designs visually stunning, but Mr. Beauchamp treats the medium itself as part of the piece, enlarging the images so the texture of the paper and even the impression the ink makes become art. A very tasteful and classy treatment for this disposable art form. (I was going to say "unmatched" but I stopped myself.)

The selected artworks run the gamut from restaurants to mascot characters to cars to strip clubs. There's a whole chapter devoted to inspiring, art deco imagery from World War II, any one of which would make a great poster.

Given the limitations of the medium and the printing budget, many of the matchbooks are designed with just two or three colors, making this a textbook for the graphics arts student. In an era in which any ink jet printer can reproduce millions of colors, it's fascinating to see what yesterday's artisans did with such a limited palette.

Some of the matchbook covers are close to actual size while others are blown up to fill the page. Given that there are as many as four pictures on some pages and the book totals 272 pages, there are in excess of 500 pieces of art reproduced here. It's impossible to find a favorite among so many gems.

If you're looking for a good summer book to enjoy at the beach, prepare yourself to read "Close cover before striking" a few hundred times. But if you want to soak your eyeballs in America's rich graphic heritage, Striking Images is a must have.

orton and friends take the reader through all the aspects of the most common archaeological find: the pot sherd. at the end, you will know how to classify any random bit of ceramic you come across.

the book is very well written; it's amazing how the rather dry subject comes alive. very much a "practical knowledge" sort of read.

every serious dig should have one in their field house.

The author clearly put great personal effort and care into crafting this book, which is a refreshing concept after seeing so many price guides that were obviously slapped together for a quick buck. I've read Miller's writing in several magazines. He's excellent. I also think he's right on the money with the prices, which reflects the fact that he is, himself, a record collector. This book is worth every penny.

welp..here it is.another book by jellyroll that says read it and become an expert!
really now.come on.
jerrys books have been going downhill for decades in my opinion.
his early books were great and showed great pics of rare 45s although they ignored 78s mostly untill ten years ago.
but the quality of this book and to honest the last ten or so has been decreasin down to the level of a newspaper.if fact its so bad that if you are blessed with bad eyesight like me,you shouldnt waste your time on this at all.
worse yet there are countless horrid errors.
many groups are thrown together only because they had the same name(although jerry is a nice guy and you can write or call him and tell him if he messes up or if you wanna contribute to his books.)
my real pet peeve on his guides are not only the horrible print,but the awfull and often pointless pictures given on individual pages.
like we wanna see some of these records at all?let alone in black and white>???
many color pics are now included but are mindlessly thrown in.
much attention if i want to be fair is elvis gets a load of attention..but its too confusing.
by the time i found a few of his titles to price my eyeballs were hurting and popping out!
last but not least,many artists have only labels and numbers listed.no names of the records.
sigh.
but if you want it buy it.
its a good book if you are starting out or if you are into whitburn who will probably do his own gudes eventually.
sorry jerry but thats how i feel after all the dough is spent.

My low score for this book is based not so much on the book's content but on how it is titled and marketed. The title should be "The Official Price Guide to ROCK Records," because that's basically what it is. I purchased this book as a reference for records BEFORE the Rock era and found it virtually useless for that purpose. I am an antique dealer and most of the records I come across are from the 1940s and before. For example, I wanted to reference vintage records on the original cast of the musical "South Pacific", early Lawerence Welk, Gordon MacCrae, 1940s "Peter Pan" Children's records--not exactly "obscure" artists. NONE of these records were listed. For goodness sake, the book even contains a explanation in it's introduction on how its [precious few] "NON-ROCK" records (yes, they actually used the term "non rock")were selected for inclusion! If that's not a dead give away as to this book being basically a ROCK record reference I don't know what is! If you want a reference for ROCK music this may be your cup of tea, but if you seek to research "non rock" records this is NOT the book you want. I'm returning mine today!

It was exactly what I ordered, and was delivered on time

The book was very informative about history of records. I was looking for something that would help me with pricing, unfortunately this book did not help.

Bought this book to look up some very old records that my folks had. Maybe 1 out of 50 is listed. This book is a piece of doodoo.

The book gives essential information to anyone interested in the design or construction classic American furniture.

I gave this book "Making Antique Furniture Reproductions" as a present to a person who is learning how to make furniture. This book was very well received and appreciated for all of its detailed information and illustrations.

I guess some people really like this book. Like the other book, it has an attractive cover, but inside...lacks. The drawings are hard to understand, of not the best quality and would have expected more.

Some of the designs in this book are projects that I definitely intend to build. However, using this book to produce the designs in it requires a good set of woodworking skills and ability to come up with the project based on a minimal presentation. The drawings are adequate, but the photos are very poor quality. Frankly I could produce a better quality presentation on an office copier. Very dated to the 70's and not a book to read just for enjoyment or to look at the pictures.

I took the initiative to build the carved corner china from the plans in this book and they are excellent. When I was done with my project I wrote Mr. Gottshall with photos of my project and he wrote back immediately, as I am perhaps the only other person he knew who built this particular project.
I telephoned him to thank him for the education I got building from his plans but alas, he had had a stroke. This was in 1978. I can be reasonably certain Frank has passed away by now, but his legacy is in his books which got better as he got older. A must for any cabintmaker.

The title is misleading. There is not a guide to grading knives in the book. However, I love looking at the old catalogs. I have been collecting knives for a while and this is the only resource I know that has so many pictures of the old knives. I would give it 5 Stars, but the title is problematic, so I give it 4 Stars.

This book didn't have but a few peices that I was looking for..The illustration was poor which is not Amazon's problem..Wish I could return for a refund;but know that's not possible..Thank you for you're quick shipping of the item..And I will continue to do business w/you..Gordon Stanley

This was an Xmas gift for my husband who collects knifes, he really likes it.

This book is almost useless to me. Its listings of various cutlery companies is wanting. The cutlery companies that are included in this book only list only very old or vintage knives and are not in any particular order. I cannot find but only a few knive values when searching for a specific knife. For me, it is a waste of money and paper.

I bought this book based on another customer review. About the only pictures are on the front cover. This book is NOTHING more than various knive ads and catalogs from long past. There is no related history or collector insights. Indeed there is very little original writing in this book at all. Major modern manufacturers are not covered (Buck for instance) and like I said, there is very little additional information other than the catalog reprints. Knife values are kind of strange. My recent sales are as much as 4 times what is listed. Most are 2-3 times what is listed. I have noticed that other knife books are a little low also. There is no real help with identification in this book either. The only thing I liked about this book was the cover.

The book was done very well. It was a great help to me in getting started in the collecting of Gas Pumps.

This is an excellent book to provide information, model identity and value of old gas pumps. We have used this book to identify and purchase many pumps. It goes with us on every exploration. I highly recomend it to anyone interested in buying old pumps or just haveing a interest in them.

While I would like to see more real pics, the drawings do a fine job of identifying the various pumps. Think the glossary could be expanded to include more terms. All in all, I am glad to have the book in my library.

This book has been a great help to me for identifying and costing pumps that I might want to add to my collection. Nothing published to date even compares.

We were very disappointed with the book. We were hoping it would have pictures of old gas pumps and how they should be painted. All it shows is old gas pumps but most are black and white and seem to be drawings instead of actual pictures.

Well, right off the bat let me just say that if you are a Robert McGinnis fan, you must have this book. The production standards are terrific and the reproductions of paintings, from the originals, are as crisp and eye-popping as you always hope for in an art book. The book is also a valuable companion volume to "Tapestry" released. last year and covers completey new ground in terms of illustrations reproduced. All this said, I do have a quibble with the thought that went into the layout. Fine coated art paper is used throughout and what did the authors do? They filled up huge portions of this gorgeous paper with a complete checklist of McGinnis paperback covers, rather than the illustrations us fans were looking for. The checklist is a valuable tool for those who wish to compile a complete library of McGinnis paperbacks, (say, 5% of the people who love the work of McGinnis), but it could easily have fit at the back of the book on cheaper stock, which would have left room for dozens (if not hundreds) of color McGinnis covers. Oh well! Still good, but it was "this close" to being great!

Robert McGinnis is one of America's most gifted illustrators and the breadth of his talent was well-documented in his art book, TAPESTRY. Pin-ups, Westerns, movie posters--the guy could paint it all. THE PAPERBACK COVERS OF ROBERT MCGINNIS, though featuring several paintings as well as pencil roughs and a couple of photo references, is not an art book, but rather is a rather pricey checklist geared toward paperback collectors. The majority of the color works are small reproductions of the actual covers as they originally appeared--and the focus is firmly on McGinnis' detective covers with the other genre's he's worked in getting barely a nod. Even so, I would have preferred to see large reproductions of the artist's trademark femme fatales unmarred by titles instead of the plethora of tiny second-generation reproductions found in this volume: the format and content is geared SO much toward the hardcore collector mentality that the editors/authors seemed to have lost track of the ART and the ARTIST they supposedly revere. A disappointment.

This is a wonderful book! What a great way to create many hours of make-believe and play. I do have to alter the patterns a bit, since my dolls are a little bigger, but it is not a difficult process. I can use scraps from my stash and fabric remnants for most of the patterns. I love that it even includes instructions on how to make the backdrop settings and props. I would highly recommend this book!

great recreations of favorite fairytale costumes. Patterns easy to follow, fit well, simple but elegant.

Has your 18-inch doll been fantasizing herself as the beautiful Princess Cinderella? Has she been hinting around to dress up as Little Red Riding Hood for her next masquerade party? Or maybe, she's more practical and just wants a warm and snuggly Cowardly Lion or White Rabbit suit for those cold winter mornings. Say no more! All these patterns, plus fifteen others, can be found in this book. From Hansel and Gretel to that naughty little Goldilocks, your doll can be it all. And once she's smartly outfitted, you can find the directions to make all the necessary furniture and must-have settings from simple supplies, like cardboard project display board, felt, white foam board, and other things available at your local craft store. What a great book for the doll who has everything!