5 comments about Collecting Head Vases: Identification and Value Guide.

1. 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.



2. 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.



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



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



5. This book is the most comprehensive head vase book that has ever been written and I have them all. Beautiful color pictures and realistic up to date values. Loaded with useful information not available in other head vase books. A must have for the head vase collector.

1 comments about Art Nouveau (DK Collector's Guides).

1. While my interest in Art Nouveau is largely a consequence of its incorporation into cross stitch designs, I also admire the inherent beauty in many of the pieces.
   
   I picked up this book simply to feast on the many and varied works pictured including: ceramics, jewellery, furniture, posters and glassware. A cornucopia of designs from Rene Lalique, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Tiffany Studios, Alphonse Mucha and many others.
   
   If you have an interest in Art Nouveau, or just enjoy looking at it, then you may well enjoy this book.
   
   Jennifer Cameron-Smith

5 comments about Beckett Basketball Price Guide #15 (Beckett Basketball Card Price Guide).

1. We have been buying this price guide since it's inception but the quality and content has been dropping the last few years. I suppose they are trying to keep the price down, but they are omitting and reducing too much. I would say though, until someone comes up with something more complete, it's the one to buy.



2. Great book, came in awesome condition and I love using it! Highly recomended for all NBA card collectors!



3. Look, we all know that monthly price guides cannot possibly keep up with the explosion of basketball cards produced by all the companies putting out cards today. All they can do is focus on the name cards on the stars. But if you are trying to put together a set of 1957-58 Topps, 1986-87 Fleer or 1992-93 Hoops, then you need to know ALL the cards so you are prepared for dealers whether they organize their cards by number or team or player's name. With the "Beckett Basketball Card Price Guide" you have your best chance to find out exactly what is out there. True, in practical terms the prices quoted have a chance of being obsolete by the time you track down the cards you want, but the key thing about all of these Price Guides is that they list all the cards, including all the extras, bonsues, special sets and the like. Whether you are looking for a card of this year's MVP, Allen Iverson or Ernie Calverley (he was on the first basketball card put out by Bowman in 1948), this is the book you want to use to put together your want lists when I head out to the card shows.



4. This is a great source for the basketball collector. It is the most recent of the annual beckett price guides and provides listings for card sets that can't be found such as classic, scoreboard, chivas de guadalajara, and 5-sport sets. no card is left out has been left out. This updated book now gives you updated values for some of Kobe Bryant's rarest cards like the Scoreboard Die-Cut and the Chivas de Guadalajara team set Kobe RC edition. This book is recommended to all collectors.



5. This book is so cool.I suggest you get it.It tells you just about everything you want to know about your cards and how much they are worth.Worth your money to buy it.It is the best thing that I have and it can be yours

1 comments about Arts and Crafts (Dk Collector's Guides).

1. I first became aware of the Arts & Crafts movement of William Morris and his circle back in the late 1960s, when Art Nouveau (an outgrowth of Arts & Crafts) was enjoying a renaissance. I ended up with several pieces of Arts & Crafts-style furniture (replicas, naturally, on my graduate school budget), some poster (reprints) and a couple of affordable ceramics (original). And I made a point thereafter of searching out museum collections and galleries specializing in this stuff. I still have a preference for the clean lines of furniture and the luminescent glazes on pots, especially those by Pilkington and Rookwood. Miller has brought together in this beautifully produced volume more than a thousand examples of design and craft, with detailed descriptions and notes and a list of "Key Features" for various artists and studios. Approximate values also are included, though I'm happy just to look at the pictures. If you're trying to learn about the Arts & Crafts movement, this would be a good visual textbook.

3 comments about Barbie Doll Around the World 1964-2007: Identification & Values.

1. Barbie Doll Around the World: Identification & Values 1964-2007 is a top pick for any specialty Barbie collection or for lending libraries seeking to go beyond the general antiques and collectibles guides to get specific about the most collectible items. Barbie dolls are among the most highly collected types of dolls, so if you're a public lending library seeking a popular collectible guide, make it BARBIE DOLL AROUND THE WORLD: it covers all kinds of Barbie collectibles, not just USA issues.



2. Good job indeed! I always like Augustyniak's works as he's very accurate in his descriptions and shares also lovely pictures of dolls which are important to guide collectors within the huge world of Barbie dolls. I especially appreciated this book about international versions of dolls as I'm Italian and recognized many of them as sold in my country alone. It was also useful to know about special editions from other countries such as Japan or Philippines. Thanks Michael, as I said: a good job indeed! :-)



3. Once again, Michael Augustyniak gives us another wonderfully informative book, but this time on those very hard to find Barbie dolls from the foreign markets. Michael breaks the book down by country, and those include, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Europe, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Venezuela.
   
   As in his other books, Michael gives a picture of the doll and a close up on the face. Barbie, Ken, Skipper and Kelly, among others, are featured. The years range from 1964 to 2007 with over 350 pages and a break down of Barbie's foreign family tree and celebrity friends. With this overwhelming task of finding these obscure dolls, some lines are not complete, but this book is well worth the price for any Barbie collector.
   
   This is a useful and fun book about Barbie dolls around the world.

5 comments about Collectors Encyclopedia of American Composition Dolls: 1900-1950: Identification and Values (Collector's Encyclopedia of American Composition Dolls).

1. I have the other Ursula R. Mertz book on compo dolls and both are just great! I would recommend both books!
   
   1) Photos: Large, bright, highly detailed!
   
   2) Descriptions: Very accurate. Ursula is probably one of the most knowledgeable people on this subject around today!
   
   3) Well written. Well researched.



2. This is by far the best book on composition dolls printed to date. Ms. Mertz begins her book with a little background on the construction of composition dolls and traits peculiar to them alone. Lesser known compaies receive equal representation in this book ,with a section devoted to Patsy look-a-likes that shows many dolls some of us never knew existed. The photography is outstanding and quality is consistent throughout. I particularly like the section on Effanbee dolls;there are some early F&B's that I have never seen anywhere else.
   For the serious collector it is an invaluable resource; for the doll lover, it is a work of art . For both, it is the ultimate 'wishbook'!



3. Thoroughly enjoyed all the information provided. This book will continue to be a reference for anyone interested in composition dolls both recent and antique, the photographs are wonderful.



4. This is the BEST book I have ever seen on Composition Dolls! Not only does it include marked dolls, but identifies unmarked dolls based on their characteristics. Also has many dolls that the Blue Book does not have. Great color photographs! The only thing that this book does not have is an index of marks (initials & numbers) for quick reference. I love this book!



5. Wow! This wonderful compendium of American composition dolls is the most comprehensive and beautifully presented book ever written on the subject. What I most appreciated about this volume was that Ms. Mertz gave thorough descriptions of the dolls including markings, manufactured sizes, inconsistencies and even how these dolls were produced. So many other authors seem to "slap-dash" books together without paying attenton to these important details which truly make a collector's book worth its mettle. This book is not only filled with useful identification markings and values...it is also filled with the most professional of photographs that truly capture the spirit of each doll. It is obvious that this project was undertaken with great care, attention to detail and a lot of love for its subject. Even if one is not a doll collector, this is a book that captures a part of American design history and a simpler time when most major doll companies were still a family business..not some impersonal conglomerate. Hats-off to Ursula Mertz (and her husband) for creating this treasure of historical and collector's information. I think it belongs in the library of every doll collector and every historian of popular Americana.

No comments about Decorative Arts.

1 comments about Westmoreland Glass the Popular Years 1940-1985: Identification & Value Guide.

1. I am a collector of milk glass and am a big fan of Westmoreland Glass. The majority of the Westmoreland I find was made during the period this book covers. The information contained in the book is very good, the pictures are beautiful and, of course, the price guide is extremely helpful.

3 comments about Standard Catalog Of Schwinn Bicycles 1895-2004.

1. This book was disappointing. It's title lead me to believe that it would be an extensive and thorough compilation of most, if not all of the bikes Schwinn produced; not so!
   
   I own a 1970 Schwinn Twinn Tandem bike, and was hoping I would read and see information on tandems. They picture one tandem, and have very little information about it. They also fail to depict several other models. If you look at an orignal Schwinn catalog, you'll find that they built dozens of models each year! Do a google search and you'll find it.
   
   One of Schwinn's more popular models was the "Typhoon", and I don't even see a mention of it! What a crock!
   
   I have a Standard Catalog of Corvette, and it's is much more thorough than this one for the bike.



2. The book is well written for the casual interest, yet it does not detail the financial woes that Schwinn had prior to its demise. The photos are good, not enough information that a "Catalog" should have. I was hoping for model names and production fiqures year by year, but such was not contained. I'm sure there are better histories out there.



3. After reviewing this book I was very disappointed. The title should have been "just another picture book of a few guys bikes". The title "standard catalog" is very deceiving. The content does not even scratch the surface of the vast array of of bicycles built by Schwinn down thru the years. There are no charts of models built, no production numbers, no serial numbers, really nothing in the way of valuable information to the collector. Nothing more than pictures of a select few bicycles and some cheesy history thrown in for copy. Even my untrained eye spotted several inaccuracies in the pictures of the restored bicycles shown.
   I will say that the photography is quite good and the paper quality is great. My "new" copy arrived with the binding separating and some pages coming out. This would make an excellant book to keep next to the commode in case of emergency!!!
   Perhaps the next time the author decides to tackle such an undertaking, some amount of research would be in order instead of relying on the Schwinn name to sell a book. I'm not into burning books but this on comes close.

2 comments about Strike It Rich With Pocket Change.

1. I love this book, It is a great beginners book for coin collectors, easy to read and understand. Only down side is no color pics, all pics are Black and White..



2. This was a very helpful book,written by experts.
   I was able to increase my knowledge of variety coins
   and have some new directions in my collecting.