No comments about Washington, IL (Postcard History).

2 comments about Official Price Guide to Postcards: 1st Edition (Official Identification and Price Guide to Postcards).

1. Allmen's book is a nice reference, but not an absolute essential. It has some valuable information in the beginning, such as how to determine the age of a card and so on, but her examples aren't as plentiful as one would wish. As well, her prices aren't current, and having been published in 1990, cannot possibly reflect the kind of resurgance in interest in postcards that places like Ebay and Amazon auctions are generating. But if you're a dealer or a serious collector it's a nice book to add to your shelf.



2. This book starts with short easy chapters on the topics of most interest to beginning collectors: history of postcards, how to gauge age, condition, buying and selling, terms and abbreviations. Contains a comprehensive list of postcard publishers, a good glossary, but less than adequate index. One particularly good chapter runs through 5 postcards from the same artist that range in value from $1 to $150 in order to give a sense of what is valuable. This type of comparison would be of great value in any collectables/antique book and I wish there were more examples in this book. The novice can quickly get up to speed on the basics, then browse the extensive price listings both to estimate the value of their own collections, or to see if the local antique store is overpriced (it is!).The price list contains several thousand categories. Contains many b&w photos. The color insert would've been better if it showed a greater variety of postcard types rather than emphasizing a specific topic: European Art Novaeu. I highly recommend this book to beginners. Advanced collectors will probably already know the basic information, including the monetary value of their own topical interests. However, the extensive price list makes a good shelf or shopping reference even for advanced collectors.

No comments about Railroad Timetables, Travel Brochures & Posters: A History and Guide for Collectors.

No comments about Route 66 Postcards: Greetings From The Mother Road.

2 comments about Hollywood in Vintage Postcards.

1. 
   This book itself is very "authentic",--- since the postcards are actual postcards from the Era. However, I would have loved to have seen more postcards in this book.
   
   So... all in all, there is nothing wrong with the authentic postcards in this book, but in my opinion, I wish there had been more postcards shown.



2. A delightful book of postcards that captures the exuberance and excitement of Tinsel town in the first half of the last century. One reason I love this book is the simple presentation, book designers, when confronted with colorful graphic images such as postcards, always seem to want to present them angled and overlapping each other. Fortunately, designer Kurt Wahlner keeps them upright and puts a drop-shadow on two sides of each card, a simple elegant solution. The color of the cards is very true to the originals. Author, Rod Kennedy, writes just enough historical detail into the captions to keep me interested. The chapter on the homes of the stars I found the most fascinating. Predictably, with money no object, so many of these houses are a fantasy of architectural styles and I suppose this only confirms that most Hollywood folk had no taste.
   
   I have another book of postcards covering the same subject, Jim Heimann's 'Hooray for Hollywood' (ISBN 0877013012) equally as good though some of the pictures are in black and white. I would have preferred it if both these books included some information about publishers of these postcards, I guess most of those shown are from the Curt Teich company. Both books have an index and useful bibliography.
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

2 comments about Classic American Diners: Collectible Postcards and Matchcovers (Schiffer Book).

1. A rich selection of diner postcards and matchbooks though it must be said one diner postcard is not too different from another but when you see more than 270 all in one go they become quite fascinating. The rest of the 450 pictures in the book are matchbooks. All the material is from Don Preziosi's collection but he left out color glossy photographic postcards. I agree with his reason: these cards, though obviously an exact record of what a diner looked like yet they lack the exuberant color and period feel of the illustrative diner postcard.
   
   There is an interesting few pages near the front of the book that covers postcards and matches from diner makers. The O'Mahony, Silk City, Kullman, Paramount, Fodero, Manno and DeLuxe get a look in with black and white photographic postcards though they have a retouched look to put the best gloss on the units. The matchbooks use illustrations. The diner makers didn't miss a trick by going for a streamline look, suggesting modernity and cleanliness, so many of these diners use the curves, glass bricks and lightweight metals associated with streamline design.
   
   There is a nice feature on page 132: four cards and a matchbook for the Ideal/New Diner on Route 40, Aberdeen, Maryland. Preziosi writes a bit about the background to the changes to this diner over the years. There are also a few cards where owners used the Dinor rather than Diner spelling.
   
   Wonderful though all these postcards are I was disappointed with the book's production. There are so many pages with two or three items that just don't fill the space even though they are angled and frequently a bit of one overlaps another. I suppose the problem was having a book of too many pages for too little material. To break up the editorial flow of white pages a few use blown-up card images as a background with the proper cards printed on top of the picture but even here crude white oblongs are arbitrarily cut into the background for the short captions. The imprint, contents, acknowledgements, intro and the few text pages are uniformly dull with unimaginative typography. The author's text is set in a large type to fill out as many pages as possible. The one concession to a contemporary look is a nice drop shadow on all the illustrations.
   
   The front cover, with twenty postcards, all the same size and butted together looks stunning but how frustrating to see these lovely period graphics wasted on the inside pages because of poor editorial design. For the price I really expected something better looking.
   
   ***FOR A LOOK AT OTHER DINER BOOKS click 'customer images' under the cover.



2. The classic American diner is an image embodying American culture, and here matchcovers and postcards which captured these images and were giveaway promotional items are presented in a collection which could've been featured in our Collector's Corner, but deserves a spot here for artistic and historical significance. Over 400 examples in color are included, along with a history of the diners and details on postcards and period matchcovers. Perfect for both collector's libraries and for art and American history holdings.

No comments about Naughty Victorians & Edwardians: Early Images Of Bathing Beauties.

No comments about Missions of Southern California (CA) (Postcards of America).

No comments about Postbooks: Recipes from Monet's Kitchen.

No comments about Postmarked Yesteryear: 30 Rare Holiday Postcards.