Collectibles Books

One more of my top books for the value on my list. I am still learning about guns form these books.

This book is an eye opener for sure! Okay it is a coffee table book rather than a serious reference work, but hey, you cannot deny the shear luminous beauty of the photography and the well thought out layout and design. There is good info to be had as well, this book is a 'faster' reference than Madis' work and leaves you hungry for more. Well done Mr Wilson, I will be buying more of your work!

the next best thing to owning a winchester rifle itself.

excellent in every respect and well recommended.

Just the pictures in this huge volume are enough to make it worth thumbing through, but the written information is tremendous and the author manages to cover all connections to Winchesters' Fathers, including John M Browning, my personal hero (other than my Father, Uncle, Grandfather and all other veterans of WWII and Korea). Probably not all the information on Winchester firearms and ammo history but all that I can absorb and still have a social life.

Beautiful to look at. Not heavy in the way of company or technical history, but what a great coffee table book. Costly - if you can find it - but wow!

I am a fan of the "Golden Age" of American Comics which ran from the late 1930's through the 1940's. "The World on Sunday" is a compilation of some of the best graphic art that appeared in Joseph Pulitzer's "The World" from 1898 to 1911. Most fans of American comic book history know about the history of the early American comic strips of this period. The creators of the Golden Age undoubtedly were influenced by these early comic strips. However, they always were profoundly influed by the rich visual art work that came out in the newspapers of the era. "The World on Sunday" is beautifully produced and is a must purchase for all those interested in American popular culture. Finally, I would also recommend Cordula Lebeck's "Kiosk". In this volume, Lebeck follows the development of popular journalism into the age of photography in the 1930's.

Joseph Pulitzer's New York WORLD flourished at the turn of the 20th century and grew from a modern daily paper to a sensationalist publication packed with striking colorful art, from photos to cartoons and drawings. THE WORLD ON SUNDAY gathers over a hundred of the best from WORLD and places them in an oversized presentation to display their color on single and double-page spreads. A chronological arrangement lends to a fine sequence of reproductions tracing editorial and news highlights of the times, while colorful commentary accompanies the pieces and provides the necessary background for appreciation by all audiences. THE WORLD ON SUNDAY: GRAPHIC ART IN JOSEPH PULITZER'S NEWSPAPER (1898-1911) is a top pick not just for art or newspaper library holdings, but for general-interest collections as well: it captures the art, craft and style of a bygone era and is a lush example of newspaper history at its finest.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

A treasure of a lost time and a lost art. Aside from the short-life expectancy and lack of modern conveniences like, uh, cars, ATMs, antibiotics, radio, microwave ovens, television, computers, etc., this book makes you wish you lived back then- when science, technology, and journalism were in their infancy and every day held some new, authentic wonder- not just a smaller cell phone. It's also quite amazing to see how advertisements, typefaces, layouts, and prose have radically changed in a century, and not necessarily for the better- unless you're one of those "Form Follows Function" kooks. A must for all you Luddites out there.

As a librarian, I am horrified, but unfortunately not too surprised to learn that few libraries have kept back issues of the newspaper put out by one of the great figures in USA publishing. And that's before I saw how beautiful it is! The idea that not only all this information but all this art was nearly lost is appalling. (I'm glad Duke University took it, but I hope the gift requires them to return it if they decide to throw it out.) I've been on the losing end of these fights, and no, one can't always assume that someone else kept the material.

Meanwhile, enjoy a glorious and gorgeous piece of historic publishing. I had no idea that color printing was so widely used ad so good at such an early time. The pictures often show great artistic skill and witty humor. There are also some fascinating bits of newpaper history.

A fantastic gift to the nation and the world. I can only show my appreciation by buying my own copy.

This book celebrates one of the high points in American popular culture. In the late 1800's, Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, purchased the first great high quality color printer for newspapers. He then used it to publish beautiful color graphics every Sunday. This is both great art and great entertainment. But the story of how the author Nicholson Baker and his wife, Margaret Brentano, tracked down the last surviving complete collection of this work just before it was to be lost forever is just as thrilling. This is an exquisite book that is the product of great work by great people. Get ready to enjoy a true treasure.

After I purchased this book I contacted the author, Mr. Moore to ask him about collecting autographs by index cards or by photographs. He was prompt and very informative with his reply. If you want questions answered about auotgraph collecting, get in touch with him, you will be happy you did.

The reader and reviewer who wrote this book is the ULTIMATE has it right. This book is everything an autograph collector needs. Besides the thousands of celebrity addresses, this book backs up the names with celebrity facts. If you want a complete history of actors it is there under the website named in the book, if you want other facts to write to the celebrity about it is there. (the book has celebrity hobbies, celebrity charities, celebrity birthdays, celebrity hangouts and a lot of useful facts about celebrities)This is the only celebrity directory I will ever need. The price of this book is well worth it!!

I have known David Moore for many years and he is the only author of celebrity directories that uses and updates his address list on daily basis. For me, here is a list of celebrities who I have contacted and received autographs through the mail. They are: Sarah Jessica Parker, Bill Gates, Roy Clark, Gillian Anderson, Nicholas Cage, Bill Cosby, James Garner, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Gary Trudeau, Olivia Newton-John, Brandi Chastain, James Watson, Sandra Day O'Connor, Harmon Killebrew, George Bush, Betty Ford, Jimmy Carter, Leann Rhimes, Muhammad Ali, Angela Landsbury, Reba McEntire, Jay Leno, Faith Hill, Tommy John, Tom Hanks, Michael Eisner, Nolan Ryan, Tony Bennet, Colin Powell, Robert Duvall, John Mellencamp, Whoopi Goldberg and many others. If you want excellent results and great customer service, I highly recommend David Moore's book.

I am an autograph collector and I was happy to see how complete this book is. I collect astronauts who have walked on the moon, hi-tech business people such as Bill Gates, movie actors like Tom Hanks and baseball sluggers like Sammy Sousa and Mark McGuire. They are in this books with thousands more. It is well organized and I liked the extra features of sample letters and questions & answers about autograph collecting. It is a very good reference for autograph collectors.

I e-mailed the publisher to ask for an update of a celebrity address. He was fast with an answer. He also mentioned he has started a new service to autograph collectors. He will answer any question on the subject of autoghaph collecting for FREE!
I will use the e-mail address for finding out autograph prices, how and where to buy and sell autographs plus anything else I can think of. A great offer!

Taylor is one of the most competent gun writers I have ever read. He has tremendous practical experience with almost every large calibre rifle of his time, including the spell bounding numbers like 600, 577s, 500s, 450s, 450/400, 375 etc., with a nostalgic term of Nitro Express..! When discussing a calibre, he talks of taking literally hundreds of elephant, buffalo & other big game with it. So who can question his authority on African rifles. He has also covered every possible aspect of sporting rifle, which can be questioned, with respect of African hunting, e.g., doubles versus magazines, barrel length, weight, sights, triggers, ejectors/non-ejectors, etc. A must read book for the person who wants to know about large calibres, double rifles and nitro / black powder express. Excellent drawing of each cartridge is also given with details i.e., bullet weight, powder charge and pressure.

For most of us, the dream of going to Africa and hunting with the classics of the past will always remain that. However, if one has hankering for the great guns of the past and a by gone era, this book will fill that niche. If you are lucky enough to ever be able to travel to Africa, this book would be essentual reading as knowledge- practocal knowledge - of the big guns is very hard to find and full of misconceptions.

If you fall into the latter catagory, Taylor had several lifetimes of practical hunting experince, and his knowledge shines.

For most of us, there are very few hunters and shooters who have not dreamed of owning a Purdy, Holland and Holland and others of the past, in such lovely calibers as 375 H&H, and .600 Nitro. This is a book to own and dream with.

Incidentaly, despite its comparative age, much in here is still current, although much more recent calibers are not really discussed.

Grade: A+

Timeless writing! A treasure trove of literary delights for anyone interested in the ambience of a bygone era of action and adventure ala Hemingway, Selous and Bell. Something for everyone, whether an enthusiast of shooting, safari, classic cartridges and rifles of legend (doubles and single action sporters) or a mere naturalist. John Pondoro Taylor was clearly a genius in his given profession, albeit politically incorrect for his time.

If you love hunting- and african hunting in particular- you MUST have this book! It is the classic by which all others should be judged. I read my first copy so often- and referred to it when reading other African hunting books- that it started to fall apart. I bought another to read and loan, plus one bound in leather to keep for good in mint, unread condition.
Believe me, you will love this book if you are a hunter!

John Taylor's masterpiece - the definitive work on African hunting from a technical perspective. And even though his experience is nearly 100 years old now, it's still as fresh as yesterday, because the rifles and cartridges really haven't changed much. Craig Boddington's important work on the same subject is truly current, but you won't miss a beat if you just go by what Old Pondoro says.

But that's not the book's real glory - anyone can publish ballistic data and shooting tips. What Taylor does is to back up his opinions with some of the most exciting hunting literature ever jotted down by lantern light. He's a wonderful writer, with an easy flowing style that grabs you and takes you along. He saw and did things that noone else will ever again do or see, and in a sense saw the last of the old Africa pre WW2, and brings it alive. He tells you that the .577 NE is just the perfect thing for elephant, and has a couple of tales to prove it. Or how about the .375 H&H as a long range caliber? Well, did he ever tell you about the time that... It sounds contrived, but it isn't.

I can't put this book down, and approach it with caution because I know if I crack it open it'll be like saying "Jumanji" 3 times - the next thing you know hours have passed and there's a lion in your kitchen, licking the butter. Absolutely a desert island book, and one of the first to go in the lifeboat.

Well, okay, maybe you would place in on the coffee table if your book shelves aren't high enough, but this is a practical book. "American Art Tile" covers the period from 1876-1941. Why does it stop in 1941? Because sadly, many tile making firms shut down for WWII and never reopened.

The book shows photographs of hundreds of tiles made by more than 100 American firms (probably every one Mr. Karlson could identify). Included are the Dedham Pottery in Dedham Massachusetts with it's famous blue and white scenes of rabbits running around the edge of the tile; the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in Doylestown, Pennsylvania with it's fantastic Eastern European images; The Weller Pottery in Zanesville Ohio with it's "Sicardo" works; Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati, Ohio which produced the matte glazed architectural tile used in the New York Subway system such as Fulton's Steamboat at the Fulton Street Station; and the wonderful Pewabic Pottery in Detroit Michigan from the Chippawa word for copper colored clay.

These tiles are not all individually labled, so if you're trying to identify a particular item, the book will provide only limited information. On the other hand, it will probably help you determine the origin of the manufacturing company, if not the name of the specific design. According to Karlson, many of the companies are out of business, so this may be as good as it gets since catalogues are impossible to obtain.

Mr. Karlson includes many photographs of individual tiles, but few are show 'in situ' so the pages can become overwhelming in their detail. However, the book is probably destined to be something antique tile dealers keep in their reference desk. If you're a serious tile collector or fancier, you will probably find the book worth the cost.

This is a must for anyone interested in the history of tiles and tile makers.

The book gives a history of every tile making outfit in America from 1876-1941, and shows as many color samples of the tiles they produced as the author seems to have gotten his hands on, many from his own collection. It was sobering to notice, when reading about all the tile companies, how many went under during the depression or just afterwards. This country lost a wonderful heritage, as many never came back after the depression lifted. Too bad, really. There are currently some companies making copies or remakes of some designs (what with the renewed interest in all things Arts and Crafts). Maybe this book and the Neo Arts and Crafts movement will spark some new American tile making shops? I hope so.

The book is beautifully laid out and would be a nice coffee table addition for those who are not tile collectors, but who just enjoy looking at tiles.

Superb photos and beautifully written and researched text make this a must for any serious collector of American Art Tiles! Karlson pushes the information envelope with regard to many American tile artisans. For example, he includes a photograph of perhaps the only known example of a glazed Matt Morgan art tile. If you are a serious Art Tile collector this book should be in your library!

This bountiful volume conatains gorgeous photos and detailed information on tile manufacturers from the turn of the century to WWII. Some famous ones, and a lot of obscure ones that I was thrilled to learn about. Besides being pleasing to the eye, it really did broaden my understanding of the different tile manufacturers and the influences that shaped the work and heritage. I rarely spend this much on a book, but I found it to be well worth the money.

For the pragmatic who truly needs to see "slide-show" type arrangements of tiles and short descriptions of tile makers and their beginnings...this is for you! Practical and absolutely beautiful.

This book filled my burning desire to know everything about dollhouses & furniture from the last 50 years. There are no gaps of missing information or omitions of important items in this detailed and comprehensive book. Quite a relief after seeing an army of inadequate collector books flood the market. I'll have hours of fun reading this. My only complaint is some of the photos are dark or of poor color quality. I want to view these things in their full glory.

Informative, well written, well illustrated. If you're a collector, this book is a great reference.

This book is jam-packed with useful info, great pictures, and a very enjoyable writing style. I found myself constantly saying "I had that -- I remember that -- my friend had that one!" The book has been my constant companion ever since it arrived. What's more, it has sparked a new interest in collecting the old tin litho houses from the 50s and 60s -- items I had all but forgotten when I moved on to 1" scale wood miniatures. Thank you for a truly remarkable book, one which many of my friends will be enjoying, too.

After searching for a reference book of this type for many months, I finally discovered this book through the internet. I have over 50 collectible reference books in my library and this one I would rate at the very top. A comprehensive, beautifully photographed, helpful reference guide.

Zillner has actually answered burning questions I've had on dollhouses and their furnishings. This is by far the BEST reference I've seen in 25 years of collecting. I highly recommend the book.

This is a most wonderful book. I have enjoyed it for years and have given it as a gift to friends. It is beautiful and informative, many interesting ideas. Makes you want to go out and find the lovely things you see in this book. I highly recommend it. You won't be disappointed

"It is the loveliness of little things that imparts life to a room." This quote sums up the feeling of this wonderful book. It is filled with hints and tips on finding and caring for antiques and collectible. The joy of combing through flea markets looking for the next perfect addition to your collection is reflected in both text and pictures. The chapters cover ceramics, wood, silver, textiles, glass and paper. What ever makes your heart sing is covered in this book. A nice plus is an index listing of flea market and shop locations in both the United States and Europe. This is a book I go back to and read and look through time and time again, a keeper for your personal library.

For anyone looking for a beautiful and useful book about antiques, this is it. Barbara Milo Ohrbach has a wonderful way with words and her enthusiasm about the world of antiques is charming.

I've owned this book for a number of years, and often refer to it when I want to know a specific terminology or when I'm checking out the care and treatment of a particular antique object. Because the author's writing style is so enjoyable, I always end up reading pages and pages of the book and learning more with each reading.

ANTIQUES AT HOME is divided into eight chapters on the following topics: Ceramics-Wood- Silver- Textiles- Glass- Paper- A Personal View and The Collector's World. The photographs are beautiful and I've borrowed some of Ohrbach's ideas about how to display different collections. Most of us can't collect everything, but the lure of old and beautiful objects is contagious and the author communicates that love in her book. She calls it "a personal view" of antiques.

This is a "must read" for all of us who love antiques. With every page there are new ideas for "old things." The photography is scrumptous and the text reads like poetry. This book envelopes you. I have been reading it for over a year.

This book is by far the best and is my favorite of all books on antiques and decoration! And I have a lot of those books!

It's very useful and gives you a lot of options on how to decorate with the antiques that you have on hand, makes you take stock of what you have and cherish them even more and also makes you want to have/buy the antiques beautifully illustrated here! I really recommend this book for every antique buffs!

Thanks goes to Steve Martin for bringing to light a significant, and nearly forgotten, history. Through artifacts (Steve's impressive and beautiful collection of opium paraphernalia, and period photographs) and down to earth story telling, I found myself transported to opium dens in the East and West, and imagined the lives and circumstances of those who were entranced and enveloped by the narcotic.

The pictures are gorgeous, the writing evocative, and the topic and the objects themselves provide a fascinating portal for history.

When the paraphernalia associated with opiates comes to mind what do you picture? Syringes? Drippy candles? Bent spoons? These are the gear of the heroin user but what about heroin's long dead uncle, opium? The paraphernalia of the two drugs couldn't be more different. This book will take you back in time when drug use was at least practised with style and flair. The opium pipes, lamps and other accouterments illustrated in this book are gem-like works or art made from rare and precious materials such as silver, ivory and jade. It's a world long lost but the author manages to bring it back to life for a brief moment and dazzle us with the promises of chemical bliss that tempted our ancestors. Getting addicted back then was no doubt as painful and ruinous as it is today, but they sure knew how to do it in style!

The Art of Opium Antiques is one of the most artfully illustrated and artistically written books on the subject. Throughout its pages Steven Martin traces the cultural use in China alongside the artistry and astounding craftmanship of the time, from the low and common to the truly decedent. Photos of amazingly ornate apparatus are peppered throughout alongside diagrams depicting the main components of a typical pipe or lamp. Historical photos help put one in the mind frame of the times, allowing one to contemplate how this blissful habit, aided by dedicated artisans progressed up until its zenith during the nineteenth century. Martin's vast collection and grasp of the subject are equally great, allowing one to walk away with a greater appreciation for opium related antiquities. There is no doubt this book will help spawn new collectors as well as reconfirm the addiction of the collector aficionado, for this book is a grand spring board for newbies and opium-porn for the serious collector.

This book is really helpful to identify antique opium art. I work for Asia Galleries in San Francisco where we sell a lot of antique opium artifacts. I had hard time to find a book that helps me to study about details of opium art, but in this book I see many dampers, pipes, lamps, and opium scrapers are similar to the ones Asia Galleries have; therefore, I was able to gain some knowledge through this book. Now, I am confident to explain details of our antique opium art to customers. I would like to say thank you to Steven Martin.

Such a great book! Instead of just relating the well-known disastrous effects of opium, the author of this book brings new insight into the history of the drug by exploring Opium paraphernalia as an art form. It works!

We are brought into the mythical Opium dens of a not so distant past, with the rich illustrations of this text. A rare photo of an 1880 Butte, Montana bunkhouse "opium den" is particularly amusing. However, it is the lush photographs of the drug paraphernalia that make this work so worthwhile. The extensive captions that accompany each photograph have enabled the author to not only inform the reader about the use and artistic achievement of these artifacts, but entertain as well.

The result is a more humanizing view of the addiction itself. Knowing that these beautiful instruments were the tools in which to feed a deadly addiction gives us another vantage point to view this era of history.

Anyone with the an interest in the history of China, the Chinese Diaspora living in the USA in the late 18th/19th century or the history of Southeast Asia will find this book particularly fascinating. The Art of Opium Antiques will be an essential addition to your bookshelf.

I am in love with these postcards. They come in a beautiful box with a ribbon all the way under th postcards so they lift out perfectly. The pictures are crisp and fun to look at. It is funny to see some of the movie posters from different countries that are included as postcards. The only reason I did not give it five stars is because the top postcard, which is a picture of a bug, arrived with a red stain across the middle from where the ribbon had rested. There is a blank red card at the bottom which would have worked as a perfect protector on the top. Otherwise, they are WONDERFUL. They are almost too perfect to use for my new postcard hobby. I may have to get another set.

These are some sturdy postcards. They also showcase some of Pixar's best work. Many of the concept art postcards are so pretty that they ended up on my wall rather than going out in the mail.

No way to explain what a delight these were. The huge surprise was to find out some of these are the artist's sketches. What a total treasure. I have never been so happy with a set of postcards before. These are a collector's item and now I find myself not wanting to send them out.

I am very pleased with these cards - sketches, posters & scenes from movies. I will have fun sending these. And, 100! What a price for 100 cards!

This was a great set of postcards, real high quality paper stock. My intention was to use them to mail to my nephew away at school, but once my kids saw the cards, they all took some for their walls to hang. With 100 cards there is plenty to go around. My favorite is the old man from the toy story shorts...

This is the best coverage of Lionel's promotional sets of the period in print to date. Highly recommend to all Lionel collectors, and to those who loved these sets peering through various Christmas catalogues, warming a boy's heart in days gone by! Nostalgic and authoritative!!

Drawing upon thousands of authentic Lionel documents, "Authoritative Guide To Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1969 - 1969" is an 848-page illustrated compendium showcasing the more than 700 electric train outfits (also known as 'uncatalogued train sets') that the Lionel company created exclusively as promotional items for retailers that included Sears Roebuck & Co.; Montgomery Ward; Spiegel; Western Auto; A&P; Quaker Oats; and others. Because of the limited numbers manufactured, these promotional outfits are among the most valuable items in the history of model railroading. These outfits never appeared in Lionel's consumer catalogs and information about them simply unavailable -- until now. John W. Schmid has been collecting toy trains with his father for decades. After the 2001 auction in which the Lionel Factory Orders and other miscellaneous internal company documents were purchased, Schmid embarked upon years of extensive research in newly found documents and has now distilled that research into the pages of an impressively descriptive catalog. The result is "Authoritative Guide To Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1960-1969", a work of meticulous scholarship that is unique in the annals of the enduringly popular hobby of model trains and railroads. Included is how all the engine and cars came to be individually packed; descriptions of the original outfit box (including outfit inserts and packaging); pricing for the complete outfit (and even the empty box alone); original production quantities; diagrams for packing the outfit in the outfit box; instruction sheets, packed envelopes, as well as peripherals (track, transformer, oil, wire, smoke, etc.) Also available in a hardcover edition (9781933600031, $89.95), John Schmid's "Authoritative Guide To Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1960 - 1969" is impressively informative and enthusiastically recommended for all dedicated model railroading reference collections.

Wow! This book is a must have for every Lionel collector and individual seeking to find their childhood train set...and the book is a bargain at ANY price. In 2001, the author, John Schmid, purchased internal, long-lost records from the Lionel archives for over $43,000. It took him five years to compile these records and photograph 100s of Lionel train sets into this unbelievable book value. This book contains all NEW information you will NOT find anywhere else.

The book details over 700 of Lionel's most mysterious train sets (outfits), the ones it made exclusively for retailers and promotional firms. Names we're all familiar with: Sears, Wards, Penneys, Spiegel, Quaker Oats, S&H, Western Auto, etc. Since these "special" sets never appeared in a Lionel catalog, NONE the them have been fully documented before. Individuals and collectors have spent years trying to find out the value and contents of these long lost train sets. Now, thanks to John's painstaking research and beautiful photographs, everybody has access to this priceless information.

The "Authoritative Guide..." provides everything that came in a train set, how many were made, who the trains were sold to, substitutions of items, pricing for the train set, pricing for the empty set box, and even how to pack the trains in its set box!

It is also much more than a book about sets, over 60 pages detail new information about the items that came with each postwar Lionel set. Stuff I never knew including how to identify different train cars, engines, boxes, instruction sheets, accessories, envelopes, trucks and couplers, etc.
Everything you ever wanted to know about what is included in a Lionel train set is provided.

As a final bonus, I was able to relive my childhood memories of the retailers my mother used to drag me to. John provides a description of each of the retailers (many no longer in business) that Lionel provided promotional sets. Yes even the US Army sold Lionel trains.

I could go on an on about how great this book is, but it is best to just buy it and see for yourself. You will not be disappointed.

One incredible source of Lionel information . . . way more than just sets. Covers promotional outfits with new information purchased from the Lionel archives. This is the first time this information has ever been published!!..."For every Lionel collector, 100s of individual item variations never before documented, a must have for any postwar collector, well worth the money". Written for all types of Lionel collectors . . . first time buyers to hard core collectors.

This book is exactly what it states in the title - "The Authoritative Guide". It surpasses any other documental guide available today because it does not only use marketplace data, rather, it uses actual Lionel data from the company archieves combined with field data to take it to the next level - a level of greater understanding of how and why these sets were created and to their scarcity and value. This book is a bargain at any price! With 848 pages and 700 outfits, it costs the same, if not less, per page, than any other guide. With this new, never before published information, the book will more than pay for itself in no time because now these previously unvalued sets have realized some serious collector values! For years collectors have been wondering what was in all those uncataloged sets Lionel produced in the '60's. Now the mysteries are solved. The volume of detail is incredible. In my 25+ years of collecting, I have never seen as much presented in one volume. Avid collectors will be conversing in terms as never before such as referring to product variations and paperwork by their stock or dash numbers instead of simply by their catalog number. Novice collectors will have the opportunity to quickly become as learned as experts that spent decades on information gathering at train meets around the country. This book will re-energize the toy train hobby and has single-handedly redefined the standard for information presentation. John Schmid's years of work on this book have certainly paid off and we should all be thankful he chose to share this information with the world. I'm already anticipating his next work, whatever it will be. In time, this book will become as much a part of Lionel history as the trains themselves. The renaissance has begun. Well done!