Collectibles Books

TOP QUALITY BOOK WITH EXCELLENT PHOTOS AND ARTICLES. A MUST FOR ALL REAL ENTHUSIASTIC KNIVE MAKERS AND COLLECTORS.

As a custom knifemaker I'm always excited to see new publications related to the collected works of knifemaking. Of very special interest to me are those books which focus on the art and ingenuity of custom art knives; books which explore the art not only with good photography of quality knives but also with accompanying text providing insight into the methods and intent of the maker. Truly this area of artistic endeavor has been but scarcely examined and over the years I've found only a few books which approach these criteria and which, for the most part, now sit on my bookshelves. There have, however, been two books I've come to treasure above the others; Art and Design in Modern Custom Fixed-Blade Knives and Art and Design in Modern Custom Folding Knives, both by Dr. David Darom.

In these books can be found not only the exquisite photography which occurs occasionally in other collective works but also a depth of writing exploring the knifemaker and his focus on the knives being regarded. With his writing Dr. Darom provides rare and wonderful insight into the world of knives which transports the reader, both those experienced as well as novice, to a higher level of understanding the unique experience of knifemaking. His critical selection of art knives and insistence on only the highest quality of photographs reproduced using top quality printing methods and materials have created the finest art knife books I have ever owned. Coupled with Darom's focus on quality is Amazon.com's ability to bring this treasure to the public for an amazingly low price. I applaud Dr. Darom's efforts and welcome the long awaited USA release of Art and Design in Modern Custom Folding Knives. It is my hope Dr. Darom continues to explore the rich and diverse field of custom knifemaking and finds it worthy of producing future volumes not unlike this one.

In short; Art and Design in Modern Custom Folding Knives is without a doubt indispensable to both professional and the enthusiast alike. This book is of such fine quality I truly must wonder at the ability to offer it for so low a price and advance the suggestion this serves to make it the perfect unique table book or addition to any fine art book collection.

-Charles Kain

I want to say right up front that I am David Darom's partner in his third knife book, "The Art of Modern Custom Knifemaking, 100 Custom Knife Related Projects in the Making" (soon to be released). I very much wanted to write this review, but because of my current relationship with David I was concerned that some might question my motives. But I can tell you that I would not have even met David had it not been for this incredible book.

I first heard about "Art & Design in Modern Custom Folders" a couple of months prior to its release. I am a part-time knifemaker, and a member of a group of online forums that are devoted to custom knifemaking. David had "teased" us with sample photos from his soon-to-be-released book. And the preliminary taste worked...Like most of our 7000+ members, I was more than a little bit intrigued.

Hard bound, printed in Italy, 260 full-color pages filled with breathtaking photos of the some of the most exquisite knives in the world... The book sounded incredible and I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy. And so with the single-minded goal of acquiring my own copy, when the book had its world premier at New York's annual East Coast Custom Knife Show, I drove up with a few friends.

When we arrived I made a beeline for David's table...I was fortunate enough to meet him, if only for a few minutes (he was swamped with fellow enthusiasts trying to get their own copies). The meeting was brief but enjoyable...and I got what I came for...my own signed copy of the exciting new book.

As soon as I got home I dove in...Every page was a delight and I spent hours and hours fully immersed. David's love for his subject matter was apparent...Never before had we seen such a collection of photos...no props, no distracting backgrounds, just page after page of beautifully-done, world class photography, that showed off the knives in all of their glorious detail.

Needless-to-say, I couldn't wait to tell all of my online friends about this wonderful new book and I posted my own review, followed by much discussion. This ultimately led to an ongoing, long-distance correspondence with David. We became good friends. Several months later he asked me to write an article for his second knife book,"Art and Design in Modern Custom Fixed-Blade knives"...and that experience eventually led to our partnership in the 3rd book.

Not a week goes by when I don't refer to my copy of "Art & Design in Modern Custom Folding Knives"...The pages are now quite dog-eared. I have a sizeable collection of knife-related books and magazines, but this is easily my single, most often used resource for inspiration and ideas.

Am I prejudiced? Absolutely! But I can say without reservation that for overall production value and presentation, David has set the bar high with this book. Nothing else out there comes close. The skill and love that went into the making of this magnificent "coffee table" book of museum quality, folding art knives is unequaled. This masterpiece led me to David...And I am honored to have become his friend and associate.

It is impossible to glance at even one page of this book without being completely drawn in. If you are a knife enthusiast, or if you simply appreciate any form of extraordinary art and craftsmanship, this book is a joy to own.

Dennis Greenbaum

I have collected Barbies for many years and received this book as a gift. I thought it was wonderfully interesting to see many different artists' interpretation of Barbie and her influence on society. I haven't looked at the book for a few years, and I can still picture some of the images - Barbie swimming in French Fries (a play on American diet vs. Barbie's slim figure?) and many dolls watching a huge Barbie face on a movie screen (Is Barbie taking over the world? Should we be on the lookout for Big Barbie?). Overall, I agree that this is a fun coffee table book that would stimulate a lot of interesting conversation.

I enjoyed (and still enjoy) reading this book. The pictures are great and often amusing. This would be a great coffee table book.

As a lifelong Barbie fan, I must say- I love this book. It has something for everyone and you'll see something new every time you pick it up. This book is a must have for Barbie Collectors!

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!

When I bought this, I was expecting them as the description states, coiled and in a box. When they arrived, to my suprise, they are not coil bound at all, but each postcard is loose and kept inside the box. This was great, as I was planning on putting some of these in frames around the house anyways.

The price....let me tell you, they are worth it. If you work it out, thats about 17¢ each, where most generic postcards go for $1 or more. The artwork covers all the features and shorts from Pixar to date, including their upcoming feature Cars.

After showing these to my animation collegues, they agree, this is one purchase you cannot be without if you are a lover of Pixar's work.

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 book is a beautiful. You do not have to be a car enthusiast to enjoy this book, where art and beauty come together in a well-detailed book. An excellent edition to any coffee table collection.

The author does it again! This time he captures 50 of the best sportscars with purpose made photography, done especially for the book, and writes simple but very informative text so everyone can relive the best of the best.
Bravo!

This is a great book of historical sports cars, with lots of information and beautiful pictures. This is a neat reference and a great coffee table book, very informative and very very classy too! I really recommend this for a car person, of just someone who loves the history or simply the art of beautiful cars.

Sam Kochel: STi driver

If you've purchased several books about decorating with Arts and Crafts style and wish to get a more in-depth knowledge of the movement, it's proponents and influences, then this is the book for you. From William Morris to Gustav Stickley, Jane Addams to Frank Lloyd Wright, the author covers the who's who of the movemement, large and small. The book is full of excellent photographs and covers a broad spectrum of the styles popular in Europe and America and how it's design philosophy was incorporated into everything from jewelry to homes. When one thinks of the Arts and Crafts style, Stickley's Craftsman style usually is one of the first things that comes to mind. The "Arts and Crafts Companion" quickly proves that there is much more to the style including Nouveau, Minimalist and Japanese influences. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a great reference book as well as to learn much more about the Arts and Crafts movement.

I really enjoyed this on several levels. It's a beautifully produced book, with gorgeous illustrations and photographs, and it provides a very good introduction to the Arts and Crafts movement. The book includes information about its origins and leading exponents, and sections on archutecture, furniture, design, and crafts, all copiously illustrated. There is also a list of sources in the back. This book is excellent for browsers, for those wanting a good introduction to the Arts and Crafts movement, or for those who just like beautiful art books.

This book is informative, well indexed and offers great quality with regard to print, photographic images and text for the price. Very readable.

All of Bruce Hershenon's books are worth a dozen times what he sells them for; flawless, stunning reproductions of great movie posters. Buy them ALL!

What a book! All the poster/lobby card compilations by Hershenson and Allen are great, particularly Volume 10, Serial Movie Posters, which I suspect is their best seller to date, soon to be topped by this one.

We can argue about the "B Movie" in the title, since many of the posters and lobby cards shown are for exploitation, road show, and drive-in films, and there are some A features to be found in these pages as well. But that's a quibble.

What images! These were intended to get the farmers off their wagons and into the theatre, and they do serve that purpose. Have a gander at the incredible poster for I LOVE TROUBLE (39), a masterpiece in several senses of the word and from many points of view. The poster for TOMCATS (237) exhibits a very poor understanding of human anatomy but it would cause any healthy male of any age to fumble unconsciously in the general direction of the fly of his trousers. A number of posters and lobby cards feature the immortal Mamie Van Doren, protruding further than seems humanly possible (100, for instance) and Jayne Mansfield (for example 112) is no slouch along those lines herself.

I'd love to have seen a poster for BOP GIRL GOES CALYPSO starring Judy Tyler, but one can't have everything! Highest possible recommendation, and keep those hands away from that fly.

This volume from the series of books from Bruce is fantastic.The beatifull artistic designs of the posters contained in this volume are true classic examples of the fond memories I have from my youth when drive-ins were at the peak of popularity. Although the films were Ed Wood grade z type shlock fare the posters promoting them were class a in artistic design. The general rule of thumbs used by us frequenting the weekly drive-ins was the more outragius off the wall display on those posters(usualy a scanty cladd female and verball quotation to entice the movie going individuals) the most likely the film is a real turkey.Many of us loved making the weekly treck to the driv-ins just to see if the latest presentation could topple the king Plan 9 From Outer Space in realy bad filmmaking.The color posters contained in this volume all are examples of classic poster designing that sadly is lacking in "bland" fare that has been created for film posters from the late 80's to the present day.I highly recomend this gem of a book to any lover of film posters, the price for it is "dirt cheap pocket change" considering the outstanding content it has.A truely unique one of a kind book that I long have searched for and untill now, was never available.

As the title of this review states this should be a book any serious collector should have for reference. The picture examples are worth the cost of the book alone. The information included along with the examples is just what I was looking for in a book about collecting Native American artifacts.
The book is also very well written so that a person with very little knowledge could pick it up and understand what was being explained.

Any collection strong in Native American history, studies or early artifacts will welcome AUTHENTICATING ANCIENT INDIAN ARTIFACTS: HOW TO RECOGNIZE REPRODUCTION AND ALTERED ARTIFACTS. Color photos of artifacts accompany clear directions on the entire authentication and identification process, making for a fine choice for college-level archaeology collections as well.

This is another great book by James Bennett, and covers many interesting facets of lithics and archaeology as well as authentication. Many people will shy away from this book thinking it only concerns authentication, which is not correct...it also has much good previously unpublished information on how lithics use patterns work, etc. I believe this book should be used as a supplement to James previously published softcover book which has MUCH more information on detecting fakes/fabrications in native american lithics. The softbound book previously published has many more photos, and covers much that this book does not. Therefore my suggestion is to get this book as a supplement to the first softbound book, do not think this book includes all from the other as it does not. However this book is well worth the money and is well done, highly recommened book, but the man who appears to have donned the mantle of the respected but now deceased authenticator Greg Perino.

If you have any interest in the barber shops of your youth this is the book for you.I thoughly enjoyed reading this book.It covers everything you ever thought you wanted to know about the barber shops of old.At the end of the read I could almost smell the hair tonic and Bay rum.I loved this book.

barber shop in the Philippine

I know this author personally, his book is a terific example of what classical barber practices. He has proven his dedication and love for the trade. If you have a interst on this subject, this book will surely satisfy your curiosity. It might even make you want to pick a pair of clippers and start cutting.

I am delighted to own this book, not only because it does a quite perfect job of listing every little piece which came with some of Barbie's early and Mod Era houses/cases/rooms, especially the rarer items, but because the photos are fantastic and fun - posing Barbie and her family/friends in these structures, in many of her wonderful period outfits, is simply genius! Demonstrating how to use some of these structures for displays of your collected Barbies, Marl creates a complete world in miniature. I was surprised to learn that the very old, cardboard furniture & structures designed for Barbie have withheld the ravages of time much better than many of the molded plastic furniture sets/houses from the late 60's/early 70's. An excellent book, and a must-have for the scene-designing Barbie collector!

If you collect vintage barbie dolls, you will also need vintage houses and furnitures to display your collection.

WOW!
This book helped me turn a trunk full of parts and pieces (That I thought was junk) into a dozen Sets . The excellent photos and parts listings are very helpful when you need to know what exactly came with any given set. This book covers Cardboard and plastic structures and sets for barbie and all her friends and family, an excellent book for any collector.

This is very simple. If you collect baseball cards, you need ths book. It's just that easy!!!

THIS BOOK HELPED ME AND MY COLLECTOR FRIENDS SO MUCH , THAT I HAD TO GIVE IT TO ONE OF THEM WHO DOES NOT LIVE IN THE USA, AND THAT IS WHY I AM NOW BUYING MY SECI=OND COPY. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This book is an absolute necessity for baseball card collectors who are in search of specific players. The book alphabetically lists every player who has appeared on a baseball card. Not only does it list the major companies (like Topps), it does an excellent job of listing locally issued cards. It includes minor league cards as well. If you are looking for a specific player's cards, this is the best place to find every card produced of that player.
The only downside to this book is that it is fairly quickly outdated due to the glut of cards on the market. Back in the day, a great player like Hank Aaron might have 1 regular card and maybe 5-10 special or regional cards each year. Now, a player like Albert Pujols might have over 100 total each year.
That downside cannot be avoided, though. With that in mind, this book cannot do much more.