5 comments about 300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles.

1. Just received my second copy (replacement copy) of "300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles" and it also is missing pages 401-432 and has duplicate pages 433-464. That makes two books missing the same pages.
   Otherwise the book has a lot of information.



2. I bought this book about a year ago, I saw a lady using it at an auction bidding on kitchen items. The next day I ordered this book and it has been my guide ever since, with so many kitchen items out there, fakes and repros, it's good to have a helper to guide you thru a maze of online auctions and fleamarket finds.
   The description are accurate, there are plenty of pictures, the index and glossaries are very well organized, it also gives marks, how the items have changed over the years, who made them, where when and how they were used. I love it.



3. This is packrat Linda Campbell Franklin's fifth edition...for many good reasons!
   
   What first seems like a hodgepodge of items to a beginner-collector or student, has a certain logic or shorthand to those in the know, and to those getting acquainted with kitchen collectibles, it's an eye opening education! All sorts of pointers, reproduction alerts and historical notes are placed throughout the book, to avoid being duped by many fakes.
   
   Yes as one reviewer noted, there is scant information on items less than 75 years old, and that's just fine with me..these 890 pages are going to keep me interested and learning for quite a while! The little color section isn't terribly helpful...more smaller photos of items could have been placed in these expensive pages. Still for most of these mechanical items, color is not the key in identification. I'm just tickled to be able to recognize what a peculiar gadget is/was used for! So if someone realistically wants more black and white pictures/drawings, bring them on..and yes there could be sharper photos of some blurry items taken for better clarity in a future edition-it's not a problem for me!
   
   She lists many references for those seeking more information, and addresses to contact specialized collectors or clubs. Well worth the price of admission, alone!
   
   This is a delightful "must have" for the "kitchen curious" and beginning collectors!



4. Seldom is a reference book an entertaining read. Seldom is a good read easy to reference and find information quickly. This book does an excellent job of bridging both worlds. For the casual auction hound or dealer this book is invaluable.

   I liked the book so much I was wondering what to give my mother for mother's day. She's one of those people who either has everything she needs or goes and gets what she needs when she wants it. The idea of giving her this book struck me as a good one. Reluctantly I gave her my copy. She clearly has enjoyed it, she allows me to look at it when I'm visiting. She hasn't been willing to loan to me though.




5. The 300 years of Kitchen Collectibles is sorely lacking in information about the last 75 years of kitchen collectibles. The majority of the book covers what I would call primitive kitchen items. The photos are grainy and lack detail. If you have a kitchen item that you need to identify..this book might prove useful.

5 comments about Schroeder's Antiques Price Guide.

1. If you are going to buy only one price guide on antiques, buy this one...and buy a new one every year. I use this constantly ~ it is well written, well documented and has numerous references. It covers a daunting array of items thoroughly and interestingly. The background information at the beginning of each heading is worth the price of admission alone.



2. While the book is huge and covers a vast number of items, I have yet to find an item in it that I need to identify/value. It's a good resource for a general feel of how to price items/what items should cost. I tend to rely on more specialized/collector's books instead of this one. In fact, I don't believe that I have opened this book in a year.



3. Good book but a lot left out, Mostly rare or hard to find items are covered and from not all makers. Still a good book for the more advanced collector.



4. We have used Schroeder's Antique Price guide for many years. We always look forward to the newest issue as we use it on a very frequent basis. It is written in concise and clear terms, well documented with many reference sites also listed in clear, easy directories. Amazon offered this guide at the best value we could locate online or offline. Thank you Amazon.
   
   Thank you,
   Mary & Les



5. This is a fabulous guide, especially for the beginner. I have found it to be one of the most helpful price guides which I have purchased and I have a lot of them.

1 comments about Kennedy Half Dollars Folder 1964-1985 (Official Whitman Coin Folder).

1. This book offers housing for all half dollars from the year 1964 - 1985. Overall, a good holder for the average collector, but does not offer protection from dust and elements in the air.

2 comments about Complicated Watches and Their Repair.

1. I don't agree with the last review. This book has to be viewed as a complement, a second volume, to Practical Watch Repairing of the same author. You have to read the first book to fully understand it. If you look at this book as a second volume of the classic Practical Watch Repairing, it deserves 4 stars. It does not cover new automatic movements from the 70s and 80s, but every automatic system used by the industry is documented. Well, if you can repair an ETA or Omega from the 50s or 60s, you can repair a movement from the 80s and 90s. That's my point of view.



2. Not a very up to date book on watch repair. There are also very few pictures/diagrams available. For those wanting to buy a book about watch repair at a beginners level, I'd suggest you look elsewhere.

3 comments about The Skateboard Art of Jim Phillips.

1. I bought this book based on the two other reviews on Amazon but when I received it i was a little disappointed. It wasn't exactly what I expected. I wasn't very familiar with Jim Phillips' art before this book. I own other skateboard art books, but this kind of art is too busy for me. If you're a fan of Jim Phillips' art then I guess this book is for you, but it wasn't exactly my taste.



2. I think there is a big difference between this book and the Skateboard and rock poster book. This book comes with full blown pages of closeups of all of or most of Jim's artwork. I'm a hobby artist myself so I'm really jazzed up about this book. Another book to get that is rather intresting is Disposable which covers different skateboard companies and riders but you will be happy with this book here.



3. Jim Phillips is finally stepping out from the obscurity of his drawing board to take a bow for the countless skating design innovations for which he is solely responsible. The skateboarding, surfing and rock & roll art of the last 30 years was trailblazed by this softspoken and humble artuer and the rest if the world has been playing catch-up ever since. Any skater who grew up riding in the 70s, 80s and 90s had these designs plastered on every wall of their bedroom as well as the decks of their boards. The ripples started in Santa Cruz, CA but have radiated out to impact the art worlds of Europe, Japan and Canada. Check out Jim's other 2 books on Rock Art and Surf/Skate art, too! AWESOME!

1 comments about The Official Tractor Blue Book 2008 (Official Tractor Blue Book).

1. It's good to be able to look up the vaue of any tractor. very helpful.

4 comments about Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750.

1. I rediscovered this book after college since I was probably too young to truly appreciate it the first time around. I use it now as the textbook for my Culture of Design seminar because it is one of the rare design history books that can ground design in its social context with real depth or clarity. (And boy, have I looked!)
   
   While it can seem long winded to some, the ideas contained within are so novel and well explained that it can make someone allergic to 18th and 19th Century Design (like myself) truly appreciate the radical innovations of that period. For example, the Industrial Revolution was not just due to the steam engine's invention but more specifically to division of labor such as implemented in Wedgewood's factory in the mid 18th century.
   
   The chapter on "Differentiation by Design" is a gem, showing how design reinforces class, age and gender roles. In the chapter on labor saving devices, women didn't really save any labor since cleanliness standards simply rose to meet product opportunities...
   
   It's true that the book's layout, infographics and quality of the images do not do it justice... Hopefully the next reprint will address that.



2. What is design? Is it what we make it to be, how we want it to be, or is it just designed and accepted by society? Adrian Forty writes the book in an unusual way by setting up each chapter as its own entity, yet the concepts in all the chapters somehow relate. The author enjoys jumping from topic to topic at high speed which makes the read interesting with the overwhelming examples there are in products- in one chapter it went from pocketknives to watches to childhood furniture to textiles to soap to architecture within a span of a couple pages. Ridiculous as it may be, it somehow kept my attention. Filled with pictures of antique and modern design, Forty proves that design has progressed though time according to the needs or perceived needs of society. It makes you see things more as designs than products, and inspires you to wonder why something was designed the way it was. This book was assigned to be read in one of my college classes, and I decided to keep it instead of selling it back after the semester ended.



3. This is more for the reader who wants to read an economic and cultural treatise on the development of design and how it has affected culture.
   
   If it wasn't so long-winded I would have actually enjoyed it a lot more. Forty has looked at some of the assumptions we have made about design and culture and realised that they are not quite as they seem. A classic example he uses is that the invention and high use of sewing machines coincided with the impossibly ruffled gowns and dresses of the 1860's - the assumption has always been that the sewing machine made this type of style possible. Forty points out that these dresses did indeed use up to 100yds of fabric, and the use of the sewing machine only made them possible by making them more affordable. Sweatshops paid machine sewers far less than they paid hand sewers - therefore more complex dresses made by machine could be made for cheaper cost. My only problem with Forty is that he takes nearly 2 pages to say this.
   
   I have some other problems with this work, I don't think it is well illustrated - all illustrations are small and in black and white - a bit hard to take in things that he calls 'richly glazed' and so on when you can't even see the colours. It also means he has catalogues and so on in here printed in impossibly small form so you can barely make out the designs.
   
   On another petty note, I was surprised to see the picture of a cauliflower tea pot - fully functional from Wedgewood on one page, and then several pages later a picture of the mould was shown - both from 1760. What suprised me was that there was no reference in the text or near either illustration alluding to the fact that these were both in here. I thought something like this would at least have a small footnote directing to the other page.
   
   I realise that with printing you have to make compromises but I didn't feel that these essentially editing and printing details did the book and its subject full justice. This really is a great book - divided into 11 chapters from the first industrial designers, to design in the home, labour-saving in the home and design and corporate identity. It just doesn't really quite make it.



4. Design, according to Adrian Forty, encompasses not just how things look, but how they are made and marketed as well. In a very readable and well-illustrated book, Forty shows how design reflects and changes culture. His fascinating historical accounts show how modern consumer society developed. Victorian pocket knives, for instance, mirrored and reinforced that era's strict social structure. In another example, Forty reaches back to the 1750s to show how Wedgewood china introduced revolutionary changes in industrial manufacturing, design, and marketing that made the industrial revolution possible. Objects of Desire should appear on the reading lists of every design department and business school

5 comments about The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies.

1. Excellent pictures, interesting information. This is a must have for Disney fans of the Haunted Mansion! It even covers Disney's other haunted mansions around the world, and the Haunted Mansion movie. Everything you ever wanted to know!



2. THis book was great! A ton of information on the ride! I couldnt put it down! It was great.



3. This book is a must read for ALL ages and ANYONE interested in Disney theme park attractions around the globe. Any Disney fan knows that the Imagineers are very particular about what is revealed to the general public in terms of how they make their Disney 'magic' and I was pleasantly surprised (being an avid Disney fan myself) by the research that went into the making of this book and the amount of knowledge shared with the reader - it DOES in fact reveal some secrets of the mansion and never before seen history of the making of the attraction. (It confirms and dispels some rumors about the attraction once and for all too!) A pattern of discussion is followed throughout the book as you are verbally walked through the mansion's corridors and rooms. Surrell consistently covers the Haunted Mansion in a logical order (Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris) in every chapter. He takes the subject matter full circle by including information about how the attraction was translated to the big screen, and gives the reader insight to how decisions were made pertaining to set design, costume design, and casting for the movie of the same name. If you want an intelligent, thorough and enjoyable read about a classic Disney attraction, and especially an insight to the magic that is Imagineering, this is a MUST READ!



4. You buy this book thinking it's a great "behind-the-scenes" resource, but it's not. Yes, there is some background information, but the book skips confusingly from park to park, and offers very little technical information on the special effects. The photos are all standard Disney promotional stuff...this book tells you what Disney wants you to know, and nothing else.
   
   Go to doombuggies.com for a much better treatment of this classic ride.



5. Lots o' great info on both the Ride @ the Disney Theme Parks + the Movie [which I loath - sorry but the Haunted Mansion wasn't meant to be made into a 2 hour episode of the Fresh Prince of Bellaire, mmmkay ?] + the Haunted Mansion Holiday ....
   
   Future editions should drop all reference to the Movie, then spend more time on the Haunted Mansion Holiday [Nightmare Before Christmas Holiday makeover] + recent "changes" that occured in 2006 [I'd make it a 5 star if they did that] ....
   
   If you don't want to read the book, please buy it for the artwork
   [best priced Disney Merchandise vs. what you will pay @ the Theme Parks] ....
   
   ~(^)~

No comments about Going West!: Quilts and Community.

4 comments about Collector's Guide to Dolls of the 1960s and 1970s: Identification and Values, Vol. 2.

1. As if her first book didn't do enough damage to my bank account, Ms. Sabulis had to follow up with a sequel, providing me even more opportunities to indulge my doll-collecting habit (addiction).
   
   Just like her Collector's Guide Vol I, Volume II is page after page of beautiful photographs and informative descriptions of dolls I had or wanted as a child, and also contains many dolls I never knew existed (but now of course must obtain). There's so much there, I find something new each time I peruse it afresh.
   
   Warning: The cost of this book is very reasonable. But unless (unlike me) you have a lot of self-discipline, it will ultimately cost you far more than the initial purchase price!



2. I really could not live without this book! Not only has it taught me more about what I do collect, but it has opened up a whole new world to dolls that I never new exisited. The vibrant color photos are amazing and the descriptions are fun to read. Thank you for the countless hours it must have took to compile such a thorough history of dolls from my era!



3. As a vintage doll collector I would be lost without this authors books for dolls of the 1960 and 1970's. I have had such fun finding dolls that I had long forgotten about or never even knew existed. The photos and information in this book are very valuable to the vintage doll collector. I would highly recommend this book. Even if you are not a collector the book is very fun to have around. People come over and open the book and say I had this doll or I remember my friend had this one.



4. Volume 2 of Cindy Sabulis' great doll directory of the Sixties and Seventies has more obscure dolls than anyone has ever seen. There are the popular favorites like Tressy, but did you ever see the bizarre Peteena,a glamorous woman with the head of a poodle? Betsy Wetsy rubs elbows with the John Travolta doll, but then there's the strange Ginny Bones, all head with a stick body.
   But don't worry: you'll still see Twiggy, Flatsies, Liddle Kiddles, Heidi and the Rock Flowers. But then there's the obscure guys like Mr. & Mrs. Mouse House, Herby Hippy, and Lil' Souls. Just when you think you've seen it all Cindy will surprise you.