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New Books for Collectors
—
March 2008
Warman’s
Fiesta, Identification and Price Guide
by Glen Victorey
Reviewed by Robert Reed
(Antique & Collectible News Service)
 |
Warman’s Fiesta book by Glen Victorey is every bit as bright and colorful as the enduring ware itself. The volume includes more than 700 full-color photographs, and if 20th century Fiesta ware is anything at all, it is color.
Between 1936 and 1972 lovely Fiesta was produced in 14 major colors according the author, a collector of the ware for more than a quarter of a century. Fiesta’s “original” colors included cobalt blue, light green, ivory, red, turquoise and yellow. The decade of the 1950s saw Fiesta expand to chartreuse, forest green, gray, rose and ultimate medium green.
“In many pieces, medium green is the hardest to find and the most expensive Fiesta color,” observes Victorey.
No Fiesta was produced form 1972 to 1985. Later, the makers of Fiesta, Homer Laughlin China Company, added antique gold, mango red and turf green; plus the striped, decal and Lustre pieces.
Even the established colors of the famed ware can vary somewhat according to the author.
“Some glazes have several shades, to the point that even seasoned collectors and antiques dealers may mistake an especially heavy light green glaze for the more rare medium green,” according to Victorey. “Some glazes are also prone to mottling, including turquoise and — to a lesser degree — red. Cobalt blue and turf green pieces tend to show even the slightest scratches more obviously than lighter glazes, and ivory examples often exhibit cloudy, yellowish or sooty spots along the rims and bases.”
Warman’s Fiesta by Glen Victorey, color illustrated with current prices, softcover, 256 pages, is $24.99 plus shipping from Krause Publications, 1-800-258- 0929.
Hot Wheels:
40 Years
by Angelo Van Bogart
Reviewed by Robert Reed
(Antique & Collectible News Service)
 |
The small world of those legendary Hot Wheels miniatures deserves recognition after all these years. And it gets it in Hot Wheels: 40 Years by Angelo Van Bogart.
This year marks of the 40th anniversary of those wonderful little Mattel vehicles that began rolling forward in 1968.
From the beginning, the detailed die-cast cars were both “hot” and “cool” at the same time in the minds of countless youngsters. The author tells this absorbing story very well and provides hundreds of high quality full-color photographs to complete the textural evolution of the mighty Hot Wheels.
The author comments, “This book explains the magic of Hot Wheel cars through the eyes of someone who like many collectors begged his parents for Hot Wheel cars as a kid and grew into an adult collector.” Van Bogart is also author of 100 Years of Cadillac, a columnist for Toy Cars and Models, and a very dedicated collector of Hot Wheels.
“The creators of Hot Wheels, the marketing agents behind the brand and the designers, were all part of the magic,” he adds, “and many of them explain (in the book) the cars and the processes that made that magic.”
For all of its comprehensive coverage, Hot Wheels: 40 Years is not a price guide. The same publisher, Krause Publications, provides the third edition of Hot Wheels Variations by Michael Zarnock for that task. Van Bogart’s book however is good reading.
Hot Wheels: 40 Years by Angelo Van Bogart, hardcover, color illustrated, 256 pages, is $30 plus shipping from Krause Books, 1-800-258-0929.
©2000-08 Discovery Publications, Inc.