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New Books for Collectors
—
January 2009
Official Price Guide
to Pop Culture Memorabilia
by Ted Hake
Reviewed by Robert Reed
(Antique & Collectible News Service)
 |
The first edition of the Official Price Guide to Pop Culture Memorabilia by Ted Hake is simply a terrific volume. It has no equal in the marketplace.
Its hefty offerings include 16,000 photographs and more than 50,000 prices. Readers can run and romp through 460 categories of memorabilia. It is a field of clover from Ace Drummond and the Addams Family to Winnie the Pooh and Zorro.
If the book has any flaw it might be in the title. It is an outgrowth of six previous Character Toys and Collectibles with the seasoned Hake, which were universally popular with collectors and dealers.
As Hake explains it was the title that changed “to more accurately reflect the scope of the book as a compendium of artifacts embodying the American experience since 1860.” To fans of the previous “Character” books however it will seem familiar and be user friendly.
Here are some highlights:
Flip the Frog, a mechanical band from the 1920s in near mint condition lists at $57,000; an Elsie the Cow figural night light from the 1960s in fine condition lists at $275; and Spider-Man Sunglasses from the 1980s still on the face-like card lists at $40.
Among the extras are the charts which list the top priced items in such categories as pin back buttons, toy rings, promotional comics, toy maps, toy timepieces, comic character statuettes, promotional displays and even cast iron mechanical banks.
Then there is the market report with commentary from John Snyder Jr. and J.C. Vaughn. Among other things they dispel the myth that a particular collectible will have a lifetime parallel only with the generation of a particular collector.
Official Price Guide to Pop Culture Memorabilia by Ted Hake, softcover, black and white illustrations, 1,166 pages is $34.95 from House of Collectibles, New York.
Tiffany Desk
Sets
by William Holland
Reviewed by Robert Reed
(Antique & Collectible News Service)
 |
The newly released Tiffany Desk Sets book by William Holland does a masterful job of presenting and detailing those delightful treasures.
In the splendor of the early 20th century, Louis Comfort Tiffany and his Tiffany Studios produced 24 distinctly different and dramatic desk-set patterns. They are all included in this latest volume on Tiffany works. There are an array of inkwells, blotters, boxes, scales, pen trays and more.
Experts like Holland note that nearly 1,000 different items were sold separately by Tiffany, so that successful business leaders could decide how to properly arrange the perfect desk design.
“This book was written with the collector in mind,” says author Holland, a collector and a dealer in Tiffany lamps and desk sets for decades.
“Through pictures, I have explained the various patinas and plated finishes that Tiffany used. I have included pictures of those factory-impressed markings — the Tiffany “signatures." This should help those newcomers who keep buying the misrepresented Bronco Buster bookends and the so-called Tiffany belt buckles on eBay.”
The book also includes the original Master Lists for Tiffany studios items and for Tiffany furnaces items. Also includes are the Tiffany item numbers, markings, sizes, related pieces and rarity. Such material will undoubtedly allow for identification of obscure pieces, which have long been an owner’s mystery.
Tiffany Desk Sets by William Holland, hardcover, 272 pages and 618 color photographs, Master Lists, index and glossary, is $89.99 plus shipping from Schiffer Publishing, 4880 Lower Valley Rd., Atglen, PA 19310
©2000-08 Discovery Publications, Inc.