Antique Books

"I highly recommend reading the How to [Start] a Home-Based Business series. Each book in the series acts as your personal guide to starting and running a home-based business."
-Steve Rubel, Santa Barbara News Press
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

In a leisurely blend of travelogue, history and cross-cultural analysis, Indian writer Ghosh reconstructs a 12th-century master-slave relationship that confounds modern concepts of slavery. Abraham Ben Yiju, a prosperous Tunisian Jewish merchant based in medieval Cairo, resettled in Aden, then spent two decades on India's Malabar Coast, where he hired a slave or servant, probably of Indian origin, named Bomma. Bomma acted as Ben Yiju's business agent and made overseas trips for him. In medieval India and the Middle East, Ghosh points out, servitude was often a career opportunity, the principal means of recruitment into privileged strata of the army and bureaucracy. Researching in letters and documents in Egypt, where he lived for several years, Ghosh ( The Shadow Lines ) evokes a world of mud-walled houses and class warfare between Egyptian laborers and landowners. He also writes vividly of southern India, a tapestry of castes, cults and worship of spirit-deities.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

At the start of Cleland's absorbing fourth mystery to feature New Hampshire antiques dealer Josie Prescott (after 2008's Antiques to Die For), Josie's dependable assistant, Gretchen, fails to show up for a second day and hasn't even called. When a worried Josie checks Gretchen's apartment, she discovers the bloodied body of a strange man in his early 30s on the sofa. A valuable Meissen vase missing from the apartment and a Native American belt buckle on the dead man appear to be the only clues to guide Josie in her amateur sleuthing, though Wes Smith, a local newspaperman, later unearths the suspicious fact that Gretchen's Social Security number was issued only four years earlier, at the time she started working for Josie. Ty Alverez, a Homeland Security officer who's drop-dead gorgeous, lends emotional support. A Web search for the origins of the vase leads to a frightening escape for Josie and an ingenious solution to the mystery. Author tour. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

America's most respected authorities on antiques have compiled the biggest, most thorough, and best-organized price guide on the market, featuring 42,000 appraiser-approved ACTUAL prices in 700 categories—and more than 2,500 color pictures!

Everyone from the casual collector to the antiques professional can find the value of what he or she owns quickly and easily with the help of Kovels'—the most trusted price guide available, now in its 41st year and better than ever.

Kovels' has consistently outsold all other guides based on its reliable, up-to-the-minute, well-organized, and wide-ranging information. It features more tips, marks, logos, information, and photographs—of items in ALL price ranges—than any of the competition. And unlike other guides, Kovels' lists only the actual prices for which items were purchased, not dealers' estimates.

Organized into categories that collectors most want, from Depression Glass, Dolls, and Jewelry to Furniture, Porcelain, and Sports Memorabilia, this photo-filled guide includes user-friendly indexes, cross-references, and expert comments and tips throughout, empowering users to buy, sell, and collect with confidence.

America's leading authority on antiques and collectibles presents the latest, most up-to-date edition of the biggest and best-organized price guide, with 100 percent, all new, actual prices in 700 categories!

Now in its 42nd edition, Kovels' is the only guide that lists actual prices collected from the previous year's sales. It is the best illustrated—with 2,500 full-color photographs—most complete, and easiest-to-use guide to finding the value of what every collector, from the casual hobbyist to the antiques professional, owns or discovers. Kovels' is the only source for the most current, actual prices—no Web site, not even the Kovels' own, has this information. The most trusted name in the antiques and collectibles pricing business, Kovels' also has more tips, marks, logos, and photographs of items—in all price ranges—than any other book on the market.

Organized into 700 categories that cover an enormous range of interests, from Pressed Glass, Pottery & Porcelain, and Jewelry to Furniture, Photography, and Sports Memorabilia, this guide includes user-friendly sidebars, cross-references, and expert insider comments and tips throughout, allowing readers to buy, sell, and collect with confidence.

Terry Kovel has been a lifelong collector and expert and has written more than 90 books on antiques and collectibles.  She writes a nationally syndicated newspaper column, a subscriber newsletter, and an e-newsletter.  Terry lives in Cleveland, Ohio.


Kim Kovel, daughter of Terry and Ralph Kovel, caught the collecting bug as a child, growing up in a house filled with antiques and traveling regularly to antique shows and flea markets all over the country.  She runs and contributes to the Kovels' website and has spent the last 10 years working on the Kovels' price guides and other Kovel projects.  She lives with her husband, two teen-age daughters, and her collections in Miami, Florida.

Superb, step-by-step guide enables even beginners to build masterpieces by Chippendale, Sheraton, Hepplewhite, Phyfe, other celebrated craftsmen. Fundamentals, tools, woods, hardware, joinery, dovetailing, finishing, much more. Remarkably detailed and precise construction drawings with exact measurements and full explanation of all procedures. Over 500 illustrations.

Recreate beautiful antique quilts from the pioneer days of the 1820s to the wartime 1940s—and preserve the stories they tell about America’s quilting heritage. Twenty antique quilts are pictured in detailed color photos with fascinating information about each of the originals in their era. Complete, photo-filled instructions explain how to make yesterday’s quilts with today’s fabrics, techniques, and materials. The projects have been expertly chosen by one of the world’s leading authors, publishers, and lecturers on the history of needlework. Among her selections: Chimney Sweep Variation, developed by quilters with only small pieces of fabric available; the Double Wedding Ring, a gift quilt from the 1820s; and Jacob’s Ladder, another pattern drawn from the farm home scrap basket.

The world's most complete camera guide lists over 40,000 collectable cameras from 1839 to the 1980s. More than 10,000 illustrations help with identification. Brief histories of hundreds of camera manufacturers. Serial number lists, top auction price chart, dating by patent numbers, lists of camera clubs & museums, and a full index by make or model. Current market values based on the world's largest database of camera sales. No serious camera collector or dealer would be without this book.

From a beautiful 17th-century botanical publication — all 153 black-and-white images of insects and plants by an artist renowned for her scientific eye and precise detail. The engravings of roses, lilies, carnations, and other plants, as well as butterflies and insects, will be of use to graphic artists, craftspeople, students, and historians.

First published in 1998 and last revised in 2003,  Miller’s Antiques Encyclopedia was created to “substantially and comprehensively further the dissemination of knowledge about antiques and collectibles to both new and more experienced collectors.” It is a familiar sight on a lot of public library reference shelves, and many of its antiques-themed cousins, such as Miller’s Advertising Tins (1999), Miller’s Teddy Bears: A Complete Collector’s Guide (2001), and Miller’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy Collectibles (2003), are readily available. A recently launched Web site features “a fully illustrated, searchable database of tens of thousands of authenticated antiques and collectibles, each with a full description, size and price” (www.millersantiquesguide.com). This volume is arranged into 17 chapters covering antiques by both type and period, for example, “Ceramics,” “Glass,” and “Postmodernism.” Each chapter is subdivided into short sections. For example, “Mid-Century Modern” has sections on furniture, jewelry, lighting, domestic wares, and more. A highly detailed 20-plus-page index provides access to individual pieces by artisan, manufacturer, style, name, and place. A “How to Use This Book” section offers clear explanations of the book’s many special features, such as value codes, makers’ marks, and dimensions that accompany the hundreds of high-quality photos. Overall, the explanatory text accompanying each antique is written simply enough for beginners but includes enough detail to benefit experienced collectors. Miller’s Antiques Encyclopedia is a very nicely done reference work. It should be given serious consideration by public librarians and by academic librarians whose collections support programs in fine art, history, and studio projects. --Art A. Lichtenstein