5 comments about Treasure Chests: The Legacy of Extraordinary Boxes.

1. Book was great and a nice read... but the cover was dirty, don't know why Amazon would sell a dirty book.



2. I bought this as an inspiration for my wife who makes boxes. We both love the book and have come away with some great ideas!



3. I ordered this book from Russia. Relying on the lack of such books in our country, it is really valuable material. I'm glad i have it now and strongly advise you to purchase one. Best wishes!



4. I really enjoy this book. I am a woodworker / furniture maker and I read a lot of this style of book. The author does a fantastic job of illustrating each box and providing a bit of background on each box. The photos are all in color and very well composed.
   
   The boxes range from a tea box recovered from the harbor at the Boston Tea Party to HO Studley's over-the-top tool chest to a standard GI foot locker.
   
   The book is well-organized. There is little wood working technique described so if you are looking for a how-to book, this ain't the book for you. However, the author briefly describes uncommon techniques such as lapstrake construction (common in shipbuilding but almost unheard of in furniture making).



5. A lovely book. The title may mislead - it's really what I would think of as large-scale boxes, carcass work. Old and new designs, from blanket chests to campaign chests. Usually enough photos of each piece to give a real sense of it, too. (I hate feeling like I've missed seeing 2/3 of what's there.)

5 comments about The Furniture of Gustav Stickley: History, Techniques, and Projects.

1. This book is a wonderful "picture book", but you might want to seriously produce your own drawings and measurements before building the projects. I have been building the end table/bookcase and have encountered so many errors, some of the critical, that I have given up using the book's drawings. Other than its EXPENSIVE inaccuracies, I love the book, but would caution everyone to thoroughly check the drawings before cutting any wood.



2. Excellent book describing how to build authentic mission style furniture. The designs are classic, much better than the slop in "Arts & Crafts Furniture You Can Build". The first project, a simple mirror, is classic. Highly recommended.



3. I found that the material cutting list was inconsistent with the measured drawings in the book. If you buy this book, be sure to make your own drawings and cutting measurements prior to cutting. It seems that the authors have not either tried to build from their plans or have not checked closely the measurements. The book has some very good projects...just be aware of this problem.



4. I found that the material cutting list was inconsistent with the measured drawings in the book. If you buy this book, be sure to make your own drawings and cutting measurements prior to cutting. It seems that the authors have not either tried to build from their plans or have not checked closely the measurements. The book has some very good projects...just be aware of this problem.



5. I found that the material cutting list was inconsistent with the measured drawings in the book. If you buy this book, be sure to make your own drawings and cutting measurements prior to cutting. It seems that the authors have not either tried to build from their plans or have not checked closely the measurements. The book has some very good projects...just be aware of this problem.

2 comments about Roycroft Furniture & Collectibles: Identification & Value Guide (Identification and Value Guide).

1. Excellent book. Very informative. Use the "Look inside this book" link for this book and view the gorgeous color pictures. Would recommend highly.



2. This is one of the best books to ever be published on RoycroftFurniture. it not only lists furniture but hundreds of other items produced by roycroft and sold for top dollar on the auction block. and lists the auction houses that sold the items, this book deserves more than five stars, great book , and excellent author, worth much more than its retail price,,

5 comments about Fake, Fraud, or Genuine?: Identifying Authentic American Antique Furniture.

1. After we moved into our house (and jad no furniture to speak of) I decided to take the time to buy antiques and find really cool "stuff". This became quite a fun adventure and boy have I learned a lot. This book was one ofthe first that I picked up because I was noticing so much reproduction furniture in the seemingly antiques stores. After awhile you can just look at something and see if its reproduction or not but this book really helped me in fguring that out - fron talking about different types of wood that were popular in different eras, to what to look for in joints/workmanship, to identifying original upholstry, and I could go on and on. This is just an incredible resource and the pictures/drawings that are throughout are fantastic. It's like sitting on the shoulder of an antiquing guru as you walk through a shop and they are able to go right to the key indicators to see if its original or not. The writing style os fun and easy to read too. Excellent book.



2. Before you spend a lot of money on antique furniture buy this book and study it like a text book. This well written, well researched guide will save you from being made a fool of or cheated.



3. I worked hard to really read this book. It has been worth it, because it covers the basic story on how to examine a piece of furniture to determine whether or not it is really old, or even if it is old, whether or not the piece itself is original as seen today, or has been pieced together from several incomplete pieces of old furniture, or even other sources of old pieces of wood. It is fairly fascinating, but it is also a lot like studying. I seem to be coming into contact with antiques through inheritance, and while this book hasn't told me much about the source of the pieces I have, I at least now know enough to turn my furniture upside down, and inside out to find out just where it may have been before it came to me! You have to really look at the many photographs (not every one was perfectly clear no matter how hard I looked -- 1 out of 30 were unclear I estimate) while reading the narrative. And I had never realized the extent to which 18th and 19th century pieces are researched for provenence, including looking through very old advertisements in newspapers, etc., to find the names of furniture makers of the past. Quite technical, but worth the effort.



4. I was given this book when I first became interested in antique furniture around 5 years ago. I am an antique dealer and avid collector now, and I still use it frequently as a reference. Although it focuses on 18th c. American furniture, the concepts apply to all periods and types.

   This is a great book! I highly recommend it to all collectors.




5. Long overdue, this book provides the reader with the skills needed to correctly date American furniture. Numerous clear, closeup photos help the reader to understand exactly what to look for when examining antique furniture.

3 comments about Double Your Money in Antiques.

1. I liked the straight-forward writing style of the author but felt the title was misleading. It went downhill fast when the author states that if you want to make money you have to move to a few parts of the country where he thinks the antiques are. I don't know about you but I can't pack up and move to upstate New York or the rural area of Maine. (He stated there are no good antiques in the South since Sherman burned it down). This is basically a overview of the antiques business and how things are run. I don't agree with some of his list of things to buy and not to buy. It's an okay book and you can gleam a few gems out of it but I don't think you are going to double your money just by reading this book.



2. I recently purchased 4 books on getting into the Antiques trade. The first one I read was mildly entertaining, but disjointed and hard to follow. The second one was written in a very business-like manner--2 pages and I'd be snoring.

   I then got to Mr. Grotz's book. I read the whole thing in a weekend. This book is the best of both worlds. It's quite entertaining, at least it was to me. Some may find the author's remarks caustic, but I thought they were quite amusing. He slings his arrows at everyone from his wife to the entire population of the American Southwest.

   However aside from the quips, the book is really everything you need to get started in this business. I will say with one exception though, and that is, one of the "requirements" is that you live in the Northeast, which of course makes the book somewhat useless to someone living in say, New Mexico. But as I live in Connecticut....

   After reading this book I feel armed to enter this interesting world of Antiques--I know which periodicals to subscribe to, where the best locations are to both buy and sell, and how to conduct myself and my business in all avenues of the trade.

   In short, a highly readable and informative book--lots of info and interest packed into less than 200 pages. I will be purchasing some of the author's other books based on this one.




3. Mr. Grotz has offered the general public an insight into the antiques business. I've bought and sold collectibles and small pieces of furniture for several years. I still learned many valuable ideas from this little book. I used to wonder, "Should I refinish this piece?" George Grotz tells you how to decide! He also includes chapters on where to buy "Good Stuff Cheap" and "How to Sell at Antiques Shows". Have you ever been to an antiques auction? There is definitely a "dealer's ring" at these. What is a dealer's ring? Read this book to find out. I'd recommend this reading to those new to antiques dealing and to those who want to turn their hobby of antiques into a business.

5 comments about Chinese Domestic Furniture in Photographs and Measured Drawings (Dover Books on Furniture).

1. gustav ecke/s book gives excellent photos of a wide range of chinese furniture. Some of the illustatrations of the joiney were not as clear as we would like, but nonetheless it is a commendable effort in bringing to the forefront the wonderful harmony, symmetry, and proportion of chinese furniture. I used this book as a reference to view some excellent examples of chinese furniture at the nelson atkins museum kansas city mo.The book lacked any details of tools and techiques. I am guessing that the reason for that is the author is an academic not a craftsman



2. I was amazed by the furniture in this book. The drawings illustrate a level of craftsmanship that is stunning and humbling to a western wood-worker. The joinery is something to be aspired to and was inspiring to me.



3. Good book but it would have been nice to have more detail about the joinery and construction basics of Chinese furniture.
   
   Still it's a nice one...



4. Very few books on furniture - Chinese or otherwise - do as successful a job. Not only is the history discussed and the pages well illustrated (in black and white), but timeless scholarly discourse is offered and revealing disective drawings provided. This is a must and you will see how the author has laid the foundation for more recent works on the subject since it has become vogue.



5. This book is worth the money. I was looking for book on Chinese furniture as a resource for woodworking. This book is a Dover reprint of a limited edition by Gustav Ecke in 1944. Inside are about 160 plates most of which are black and white pictures, though some are drawings. I believe one will get a good overview from the plates. I found the text a little less informative than the plates but pictures are what I was looking for.

2 comments about The 1912 and 1915 Gustav Stickley Craftsman Furniture Catalogs.

1. The best candidates for this book are those who have purchased or are planning to purchase a Craftsman-style home; however, that should not exclude those who just want to replicate the style in their decor. Although there are many style characteristics of the Arts & Crafts era that are easily identified, this book sheds light on a wide spectrum of pieces with literal authenticity.

   While not a complete collection (items such as light switch coverplates and heating register covers are not included) these reproductions of Stickley's catalogs are the perfect foundation for those looking to purchase Craftsman-style interior accents.

   If you desire to maintain as much as possible the look of the Arts & Crafts movement in your interior design, this book should definitely be a staple in your library.




2. The photography is the old original work, and while it's not up to today's standards it is nice. There are prices for each piece, which is amusing, seeing a $12 price for a table.

   There are measurements for most of the pieces, which is not surprising as the furniture was sold via catalog. There are no plans, this is from a catalog to sell furniture, not plans. But, between the pictures and the measurements you can develop your own plans.

   There is also some history and text pages from Stickley's catalog/magazine.

1 comments about Furniture and Interiors of the 1960s.

1. During the 1960's there was an explosion in the creation of furnishings for the mass market especially items made from plastic. Anti-materialist youth consumers desired items that were expendable, impermanent, and fun. Furniture and Interiors of the 1960's is a colorful and exciting look at the creative endeavors of designers during this time.

   Not a punch list of must have pieces needed to attain a "look", Furniture and Interiors of the 1960's puts chairs, lighting fixtures, tables into historical context and fleshes them out with the ideas that surrounded their creation. The biggest names are included: Ray and Charles Eames, Joe Colombo, Verner Panton, and David Hicks. Happily, there is also a significant emphasis on lesser-known designers and their products from France, Italy, and Japan.

   Furniture and Interiors features more than 300 images, many in color, including: original photos, magazine layouts, catalogs, advertisements as well as contemporary photographs. The text is thoughtful, very informative and a pleasure to read. It also features a thorough index, well-identified photos, interesting captions, and designer bios.

   Time has passed and many throwaway items have attained the highest regard, and are now on display in major museums and sought after by collectors. This book too will withstand the test of time and I strongly recommend it and the other volumes available in this series.

2 comments about Heywood Wakefield (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

1. Color photos and a price guide to boot. It is a very well done book. Highly recommend.



2. I'm not knocking the text, because it's informative, but the photos are the reason I bought the book. Rouland's book may be more complete, but you just don't get the same feel when the photos are black & white (not his fault; he was working from company literature in order to be complete). Gertz concentrated on the more popular pieces -- which are likely more easy to find in order to photograph, if they weren't in his inventory already -- and then did them up proud in this extremely high-quality book. To me, it qualifies as a coffee-table art book that should be on display in the living room... preferably on a Heywood Wakefield coffee table. The book is also useful as a reference for the pieces displayed, but the price guide reflects the market of 2000-2001. (Perhaps a 2nd edition will be forthcoming?)
   
   WARNING: Looking at this book may cause severe furniture envy, resulting in the expenditure of large amounts of money with the various Hey-Wake dealers, such as Gertz himself, the folks at Springdale Furnishings, or Strictly HeyWake.

1 comments about Restoring Antique Furniture: A Complete Guide.

1. I found that this book has alot of information to take in. It has been helpful to me as a lot of old chair that I get need fixing and I am now more able to do it correctly.
   Thanks