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—
Updated May 2006
1,000 Hats
by Norma Shepard
Reviewed by Robert Reed
(Antique & Collectible News Service)
 |
A hat is not just a hat to a collector. It is a treasure from the past. That's the clear message from the comprehensive book 1,000 Hats by Norma Shephard. Actually, the author provides illustrations and information on over 1,200 vintage hats.
Antique hats are now available though estate sales, auctions, Internet sites, antique stores and charity shops, according to Shephard.
"This was not always the case," according to the author. "As recently as a decade ago, antique dealers discarded many lovely vintage hats as they could find a market for their boxes and trims only. Many report that they harvested feathers from old hats for resale to fly fisherman."
Shephard, a traveling curator with the Mobile Millinery Museum, adds, "Even mainstream museums turned away lovingly preserved hats, leaving theatre groups to benefit from donations."
The book includes chapters on historic eras of hats including the Victorian period, the Flappers of the 1920s, the dignified beauty of the 1930s, the war and postwar ingenuity of the 1940s and 1950s, the end of an age through the 1960s. Chapters on the 1970s and 1980s deal with the demise and ultimate return of millinery.
When shopping for vintage millinery, a savvy collector will be able to distinguish between an authentic period piece and a reproduction, according to Shephard. For example, "An original Victorian or Edwardian hat, though lavishly trimmed will possess an intangible air of softness. Reproductions on the other hand are often harsh and overdone. Reproductions may also feel stiff, revealing no signs of having been previously worn."
Included in the book are the works of major milliners including John B. Stetson, Tress and Company, Elsa Schiaparelli, Lilly Dache, Christian Dior, Laddie Northridge, Frank Olive, and Hattie Carnegie. Additionally, the volume includes sections on Ascot hats, Christmas hats, feathered hats, nursing hats, red hats, wedding hats, and more. All along the way are hundreds of richly done illustrations and an equal amount of corresponding values.
1,000 Hats by Norma Shephard, hardcover, color photos, index, 256 pages, $39.95 from Schiffer Publishing, 4880 Lower Valley Rd., Atglen, PA 19310.
Tribal Art, The Essential
World Guild
by Judith Miller
Reviewed by Robert Reed
(Antique & Collectible News Service)
 |
The newly published Tribal Art by Judith Miller casts a worldwide net on enchanting cultural artifacts from North America to Africa. Clearly this particular form of folk art has become popular with interior designers as well as collectors. The book reflects the growing appeal of this field with detailed text and more than 1,000 richly illustrated items.
"Tribal art appeals to those who want to look at the diverse and fascinating tribal tradition," notes author Miller, "and those who feel drawn to the honesty and integrity of artifacts from tribes across the globe."
Truly global the book devotes large and lavish sections on three continents. Africa, Oceania and the Americas are then sub-divided into an absorbing variety of regions. Coverage of the individual regions covers the background of artworks and the essence of the culture that produced each item from decorative shields and ornate statues to chairs and cooking utensils.
Included in the Americas are sections on North America, Middle America, and South America. The first of these encompasses Arctic and sub-Arctic, Northwest Coast, California and Plateau, Southwest, Plains, Great Lakes and Eastern Woodlands, and the Southeast region.
"In every corner of this vast continent," notes the author, "cultures developed to a diverse range of natural challenges. Each established an equilibrium within their immediate environment which allowed them to survive." Miller is assisted is this overall work by Philip Keith, a veteran collector and head of Bonhams Auctioneers in South Wales and Jim Haas, vice president of Bonhams and Butterfield Auctioneers in San Francisco.
Tribal Art, The Essential World Guide by Judith Miller, hardcover,
color
illustrated and with 1,000 value ranges, 240 pages, $35 from DK Publishing,
New York, NY.
Kovels’ Bottles Price
List, 13th Edition
by Ralph and Terry Kovel
 |
Written by two of America’s most well known authorities on antiques and collectibles, Kovels’ Bottles Price List, 13th Edition will carry on as a best selling handbook with prices and histories for more than 90 categories of bottles dating from the 1700s up to 2005.
Readers will find everything from flasks and fruit jars to soda and sarsaparilla bottles and from medicine, milk and perfume bottles to Avon, Coca-Cola, Jim Beam and Ezra Brooks. There is detailed information on the histories of companies, bottle types, more than 12,000 current prices from U.S. shops, shows and auctions, 300 photos of bottles and much more.
Kovels’ Bottles Price List, 13th Edition by Ralph and Terry Kovel, trade paperback, with 16-page insert, a Color Picture Dictionary of Bottles, 239 pages, $16.95 from Random House Reference., New York, NY.