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National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals (Audubon Society Field Guide)
NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY Manufacturer: Knopf ProductGroup: Book Binding: Turtleback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0394502698 Release Date: 1979-05-12 |
Book Description
Perfect for mountain climbers and hikers, this valuable reference covers more rocks and minerals in North America than any other available guide. 794 full-color photographs depict all the important rocks, gems, and minerals -- in many variations of color and crystal form -- and the natural environments in which they occur; written descriptions provide information on field marks, similar rocks and minerals, environment, areas of occurrence, and derivation of names. Includes a guide to mineral collecting and a list of rock-forming mineralsCustomer Reviews:
an important book in any naturalist's library.......2007-09-30
Audubon guides are the best.......2007-09-28
Great for the educated.......2007-09-02
A more serious field guide.......2007-06-29
I turn to michaellandonsrock when you are gone.......2007-01-27
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Marble Mania
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0764300148 |
Book Description
The hobby of marble collecting is still in its infancy, with plenty of room for growth in all areas and for new collectors. Marble Maniar is the definitive photographic guide to collecting. This book incorporates over 1,300 color photographs, as well as an in-depth text covering the main areas of interests and information on marble manufacturers. Here are marbles made of stone, minerals, and materials other than glass; early handmade, machine-made, and contemporary handmade glass marbles; games, toys, and other uses for marbles. A glossary of terms; bibliography; lists of clubs, societies, marbles shows; and a list of museums with marble collections are included as well as a list of winners of the U. S. National Marble Tournaments since their inception. A value guide is included for each marble shown.Customer Reviews:
lovvvvvvvvvvvveddddddddddddd it.......2006-05-24
Marble Mania is catching!.......2000-05-19
An "Industry Standard".......1999-04-06
A delightful and comprehensive view of marble collecting........1998-07-28
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The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition Player's Guide
Nintendo of America Manufacturer: Nintendo of America ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1930206461 |
Customer Reviews:
Where's the beef? ...........2007-01-16
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Chasing Rainbows: Collecting American Indian Trade & Camp Blankets
Barry Friedman , and James L. Collins Manufacturer: Bulfinch ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0821227580 |
Book Description
The dazzling Indian trade blanket has become one of the hottest categories in collecting. Icons of Adirondack and Western décor, these stunning geometric-patterned blankets remain a staple of Native American life and are regularly featured in design and shelter magazines. CHASING RAINBOWS is the first book to trace the fascinating story of the commercially produced wool trade blankets from the 1892-1942 "golden age" as well as the equally collectible 1910-1942 cotton Indian camp blankets. Illustrated throughout with hundreds of rare blankets, historic photographs of Native Americans and original blanket manufacturers' catalog pages, this definitive work advises where and what to collect and how to care for vintage blankets.Customer Reviews:
THIS IS WHAT A READING EXPERIENCE SHOULD BE.......2004-12-16
Tremendous!.......2003-12-12
Fascinating read.......2003-12-01
stellar.......2003-08-26
Superb- buy it and will it to your favorite child.
I've read CR twice so I'm actually giving it 10 stars.......2003-05-15
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Indian Dolls (Schiffer Book for Collectors)
Nancy N. Schiffer Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0764303058 |
Book Description
These endearing little emissaries personify and spread the spirit of the diverse native people from across North America and into the arctic reaches of Canada. Whether made for childrens' play or as tourists' souvenirs, their colorful dress, ornamentation, and materials are enjoyed by doll collectors and Indian buffs alike. Here more than a hundred different dolls are grouped according to their geographical origins, including Iroquios, Seminole, Cheyenne, Navajo, and Eskimo Indian dolls, shown along with early photographs of the people and places they represent. Also, Skookum dolls, which were made as commercial items, are presented. Together, the dolls make an inspiring group and display the diversity of mankind. Value references are provided for some of the dolls.Customer Reviews:
Visual feast only.......2005-06-03
A waste of good money.......2001-06-01
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The Famous Mr. Ed: The Unbridled Truth About America's Favorite Talking Horse (30th Anniversary Collector's Edition)
Nancy Nalven Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0446392960 |
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Halloween in America: A Collector's Guide With Prices (A Schiffer Book for Collectors)
Stuart L. Schneider Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0887407072 |
Book Description
Halloween is quickly becoming the most popular holiday in America. Next to Christmas, more money is spent on Halloween decorations and novelties than on any other holiday. This wonderful book has been credited with inspiring the Halloween collecting craze, giving its devotees a chance to celebrate the holiday all year round! In addition to color photography and a brand new price guide, there is also a lot of fascinating insight into Halloween. Most people are familiar with the symbols--Ghosts, Jack O'lanterns, Witches, Bats, Skeletons and Black Cats--but few know about Halloween's past. Why does it exist? What is the origin of trick-or-treating? Why does it fall on October 31st? Through these pages you will experience Halloween celebrations of the past, and take a look at Halloween today. For collectors, this is a treasure trove of memorabilia, the largest ever published. It is illustrated in beautiful color and includes newly updated prices for reference.Customer Reviews:
In the Sumptuous Time of Autumn.......2002-10-11
The book opens with three short, loosely-composed essays, "A Brief History Of Halloween," "The Colors And Images Of Halloween," and "Halloween In America." Schneider, who provides no source material, is often broadly correct but specifically wrong. He suggests, for instance, that the Druids may have built Stonehenge when it has been long established that they did not, and that 'Dryad' is another word for 'Druid.' The author also writes a paragraph about witches and "witch conventions" during the Celtic reign of the British Isles as if this were an established historical fact, embellishing his account with images of witches stirring cauldrons, speaking in tongues, dancing around bon fires, and sacrificing animals; if Schneider knows this to be historically factual, then he has access to information the rest of the world doesn't. He also discusses 'Samhain' as a god of the Celtic people who "controlled the dead or non-growing season," when whether or not 'Samhain' was a Celtic deity or even an entity, rather than a season or holiday, is something currently hotly debated among historians, scholars, and Wiccans.
Schneider is to be commended for his honesty in addressing some of the more unpleasant aspects of the holiday and its associations head-on, as well as for the wonderful historical scope he provides in placing Halloween origins in a wide, multi-cultural context. Readers will find a rich phantasmagoria of topics discussed in the essays, including the custom of sin eating, All Saints' and All Souls' Days, the belief in the 'veil between worlds' and the return of the dead to their families one the night of the harvest feast, the story of 'Jack of the Lantern,' Snap-Apple and Crack-Nut Nights, apple bobbing, fortune-telling, the Scottish influence on American Halloween traditions, Cabbage and Mischief Nights, the various theories surrounding the origin of trick-or-treating, the meaning of the literal 'scapegoat' and its influence of the appearance of the Christian Devil, the Mexican Day of the Dead, and even mention of the elves, gnomes, boogies, and goblins with which agrarian societies peopled the forests and fields.
The gorgeous main portion of the book is dedicated to collectible items and includes sections on Postcards, Decorations, Lanterns, Costumes, Hats and Masks, Noisemakers, Invitations, Games and Toys, Trick Or Treat Bags, and Vegetable People, Figurines and Candy Containers.
Halloween In America is by far the best of the books on Halloween collectibles available, and also the best of the Schiffer books on the subject. Many readers will remember these items from their childhood homes, classroom bulletin boards, Five & Dime store shelves and windows, and neighborhood parties. Readers will also be astonished at how the painters, artisans, and creators of these crepe paper, cardboard, composition, glass, and celluloid items were able to envision and capture what we remember and still think of as the very essence of holiday, and in a wide variety of forms: lonely, barren, orange-skied landscapes with setting suns ablaze or yellow rising moons, black cats and owls lurking in pumpkin patches with an anthropomorphic moon overhead, witches flying on broomsticks in formation over dark, isolated houses, skeletons parading in graveyards, etc.
Folklorists, sociologists, academics, and artists may have special appreciation for the visionary and sometimes surreal paintings, illustrations, and three-dimensional designs revealed here. One 1908 German postcard portrays a witch, a black cat and a vegetable spirit riding in a car made of a partially hollowed-out watermelon with squash-slice tires; another portrays a red-caped witch riding a immense cob of husked corn like a phallus-conquering Amazon through the stratosphere, with an astonished moon and planet Jupiter looking on; and a third, from 1911, shows children happily bobbing for apples in their warm, cozy home, while a tall, red-skirted, stone-faced witch, accompanied by an owl and a black cat, looks in at the window like the ultimate outsider and a disenfranchised, but still proud and powerful, loner. An entire page is devoted to 1910 postcards of anthropomorphic vegetables riding cars, dancing with or chasing fairies, and joyfully imitating human family practices. Others display Rockwell-like scenes of boys and girls carving pumpkins or trick-or-treating, or elderly women in dimly-lit Victorian mansions being frightened by children's pranks and high jinks.
Throughout the book, visionary landscapes and distant horizons beckon; curly-toed elves spring from hollow trees and slide gleefully down rooftops; lone witches warm their hands at their cauldrons under brilliant, star-filled skies; beautiful young ladies sleep fitfully on ruffled pillows while fairies circle their heads; peaked-hat shadows stretch in threateningly at midnight doorways; black cats screech to their own banjo, accordion, violin, and horn playing; and scarecrows extend their arms heavenwards to frighten off their circling opponents.
Readers will run for their magnifying and/or reading glasses so that none of the often minute detail will escape their gaze and inspection. Halloween In America is a huge treat, will make collectors and seekers out of most, and hopefully inspire generations to come to celebrate and pass on the traditions recorded here. Highly recommended to holiday lovers, educators, folklorists, Scout leaders, and all lovers of Americana.
For the Halloween lover.......2000-04-15
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America for Sale: A Collectors Guide to Antique Advertising
Douglas Congdon-Martin Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0887403336 |
Book Description
Although advertising has a history that goes back thousands of years, it is the Americans who have made it into an art form. Advertisements were put on everything from pocket mirrors to memo pads, the sides of barns to the sides of carriages and buses. A history of advertising printed in the 1880s even show and advertisement on a tombstone. With the advent of color lithography in the late 1800s, some of the most beautiful and highly collectible items were created. Tin signs with colorful, strong images, often embossed, were made for stores, and often found their way into homes. Paper advertising in calendars, trade cards, and posters reached new levels of artistry in the latter years of the 19th century. This new book explores advertising in all its media, tin, paper, celluloid, and enamel. In full color it portrays the creativity of its makers, while at the same time bringing to life the styles of the past 120 years. Included are signs, three dimensional designs, smalls, and novelties. With some tin signs bringing in excess of $100,000 (a Campbell Soup sign included in this book), it is clear that this is an active and exciting area for collectors. At the same time, it is a good field for the new collector, who can find many pieces of advertising for under $50. Both ends of the spectrum are nicely covered in Antique advertising: America for Sale, making it an important book for all collectors.
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Furniture Made in America: 1875-1905 (Schiffer Book for Collectors)
Richard Dubrow , and Eileen Dubrow Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0764305956 |
Book Description
Eileen Dubrow has exhaustively combined all original catalog material from major American furniture manufacturers of the 1880s and 90s. This period was American's hey day of growth, and its furniture is the fastest growing field of collecting today. This book will enable the reader to identify makers and give ideas of other pieces available. This book presents a fascinating study showing hundreds of examples covering furniture for the dining room, parlour, library, bedroom (brass beds), and office (a tremendous number of variations of roll top desks), including rattan and children's furniture. These pieces are still available in the market place at reasonable prices and are superbly crafted. This book contains a price reference guide.Customer Reviews:
Furniture Made in America 1875-1905 by E & R Dubrow.......2000-04-20
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Yup'ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin: Fieldwork Turned On Its Head
Ann Fienup-Riordan Manufacturer: University of Washington Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items: ASIN: 0295984643 |
Book Description
Norwegian adventurer Johan Adrian Jacobsen collected more than two thousand Yup'ik objects during his travels in Alaska in 1882 and 1883. Now housed in the Berlin Ethnological Museum, the Jacobsen collection remains one of the earliest and largest from Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. When Ann Fienup-Riordan first saw the collection being unpacked in 1994, she was "stunned to find this extraordinary Yup'ik collection, with accession records still handwritten in old German script and almost completely unpublished."In 1997, Fienup-Riordan and Yup'ik translator Marie Meade returned to Berlin with a delegation of Yup'ik elders to study Jacobsen's collection. Yup'ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin recounts fourteen days during which the elders examined objects from the collection and described how they were made and used. Their descriptions, based on oral history and firsthand experience with similar objects, are imparted through songs, stories, and personal narratives. Woven together with Jacobsen's writings, technical descriptions, and accession information, the narrative presents a vast array of knowledge. For example, Jacobsen had observed that large grass mats were woven for use as sleeping mats in houses and were often taken on journeys; a Yup'ik elder demonstrates how the grass mat would be folded and fitted into a kayak. Another elder describes a dance in which fox masks similar to those in the collection were used. Yet another elder, inspired by a carving of a paalraayak, launches into a story about the creature, which was sometimes encountered in the mountains near her home.
An introductory essay describes Jacobsen's life and trip to Alaska and the region as it was then and as it is today. Informal snapshots show the elders interacting with the objects and miming their use, while Barry McWayne's large color photographs make possible the "visual repatriation" of this extraordinary collection. Yup'ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin also includes extensive notes summarizing accession information, a glossary of Yup'ik object names, and a detailed index.
This is the first time a major Arctic collection has been presented from the Natives' point of view, an example of "reverse fieldwork" that can enrich understanding of Native American collections the world over.
Customer Reviews:
One of my favorite books in the Museum Library.......2006-10-22
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