Ceramics Books and Magazines

Author: Michael Polak
Publisher: Krause Publications
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$21.99~~
Buy New: $16.43
You Save: $5.56 (25%)

Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

9 reviews
Sales Rank: 329920

Media: Paperback
Edition: 6
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 552
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8

ISBN: 0896897338
Dewey Decimal Number: 688
EAN: 9780896897335

Publication Date: January 12, 2009 (In 4 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Also Available In:

•	Mass Market Paperback - Bottles: Identification and Price Guide
•	Paperback - Bottles: Identification and Price Guide, 3e (Bottles: Identification and Price Guide)
•	Paperback - Bottles: Identification and Price Guide (Confident Collector)

Similar Items:

•	Warman's Bottles Field Guide: Values and Identification
•	Bottle Pricing Guide
•	Antique Trader Bottles Identification & Price Guide
•	Kovels' Bottles Price List, 13th edition (Kovel's Bottles Price List)
•	Bottles and Bottle Collecting (Album Series, Volume 6)

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
This new edition of The Bottle bible is loaded with listings, current market values and trademark data for 50 years of bottles produced during the 19th and 20th centuries. With this book in hand the tools to positively identify and accurately assess bottles in your collection are at your fingertips. Review tips for spotting reproductions, determining rarity and identifying factors that affect values, for 50+ categories of bottles (with 20 new areas) including bottles from/about Avon, Ballantine, Jim Beam, Lionstone, Miniatures, and Violin and Banjo, among others.

Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Antique Bottle Book July 30, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

A lot of good info for the beginning collector and a fair reference for all.

5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding April 22, 2003
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

I've been an Antique Bottle Collector for approximately 10 years and have bought all of the previous editions of Bottles: Identification and Price Guide. While the other 3 editions have been excellent and a great help, the 4th Edition is by far the best of the group. The front part of the book with respect to how to understand bottle collecting,the history of bottles and glass, and digging for bottles (which I do) is an excellent update. In addition, the updated pricing sections along with the photographs, both black & white and color, are also extremely helpful. I find that the other area that provided a great deal of help is the back section of the book. The Trademark Section, Glossary, Clubs and Dealer Guide, and Bibliography. Overall, Mr. Polak has done a great job providing a super updated 4th Edition. The book makes mention that it has been called the "Bottle Bible" and I can understand why. It's been extremely helpful to myself and many of my fellow bottle colletors.

1 out of 5 stars

Poorly organized, little content March 17, 2003
12 out of 14 found this review helpful

This book is a very difficult book to use. No index, bad alphabetizing of lists, no cross referencing. It lists mostly high-end bottles, and ignores others. It has pages of useless content. e.g. bottle club listings, bottle dealers, etc - all things that are out of date a month after publication and best found other ways. That space could have been used for something useful, like an index. I recommend this to no one.

1 out of 5 stars

Overrated book for the easily impressed November 27, 2002
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

I have a copy of this book, along with dozens of other books on antique bottles and collecting them. It is one of the least worthwhile of them all, and I am including books published in the 1960s with more listings, better photos, etc. The book shows mainly bottles that are more easily found in the West, and chances are that the bottles you want to find info on will NOT be listed. (Of course, no book can list them all, as there have been hundreds of thousands of different bottles made-just in the US alone). But Mr. Polak's book is a hyped mess of misinformation, fuzzy b&w photos (although he does include a lovely centerfold layout of several beautiful bottles in full color!!) and a "quick course" on identifying the age of bottles which is almost useless, as the problem of learning the true age of a bottle is not always as simple as he makes it sound. The list of glass factory marks has been copied from other writers who copied from Julian Toulouse's book on bottle makers' marks, and some of those are in error just as he first presented them in 1971. Production dates of bottles listed must be taken with some caution. Some of the bottle club information is very outdated, having been lifted from old magazines that are 20+ years old. Information is often vague, with little explanation of exact condition, damage, or the exact embossing variant being referred to, which can make a HUGE difference in the value of a bottle in some cases. I think every bottle collector should have a copy, but mainly as another checklist they can refer to, in order to help find out what all is out there in the field of antique bottles that they MIGHT eventually run into at antique malls, bottle shows, yard sales or by digging them themselves. Values are mostly overrated, some are too high, some are too low. Overall, this book is an example of the type of material that I find disheartening: Lots of HYPE, but not much solid, worthwhile information for the serious bottle collector/hobbyist/historian/digger/amateur archeologist out here!!

1 out of 5 stars

Bottle collector beware! September 24, 2002
11 out of 13 found this review helpful

Don't buy this book. It is a waist of money and time. I have a lot of old bottles and can't find one of them in this book. It says it is the best book for bottle collectors. If it is, why can't I find even a Vicks Vapo Rub cobalt bottle in it?? I am very dissatisfied.

Copyright by CeramicsBookshop.com Cart powered by Amazon.com
All logos and trademarks on this site are property of their respective owners.
Industrial Ceramics and Pottery : Ceramics Books and Magazines