Archive for the ‘design’ tag
Vintage Books
My Favorite Three Picks for the Best Antique and Vintage Jewelry Price Guides and Authors
I have been collecting Antique and Vintage Costume and Fine Jewelry for over three decades. Most of what I bought was from the Saturday and Sunday flea markets at the local drive-in theater and at a once a month massive open air antique market held in the mountains near where I grew up. I never paid much, a quarter here, a dime there and sometimes a few dollars however over the years until I really became a serious collector, I probably had no more than $500.00 in an amazing collection of over 2,500-3,000 pieces.
Over the years I have collected many types of jewelry. At first it was bracelets, then rings and when I got out of college and pursued my career as an interior designer, I found pins and earrings to be practical and suitable. In the mid-60’s to early 70’s I bought a lot of colorful and heavy “plastic” pieces and most were bracelets. I just loved the dull clunk they made when they hit against my desk… well I am sure you know where this is going… you’re right most were Bakelite. One in particular is a wonderful art deco black, red, orange, yellow and green fins clamper bracelet and it is like having a carnival on your arm. It fits great and feels sturdy andit brings me joy. It wasn’t until I received Harrice Simons-Miller 2002 third edition Official Price Guide to Costume Jewelry, that I realized the bracelet is called “Philadelphia” and has a market value of up to $5,000 making it the Holy Grail of Bakelite jewelry.
I also became quite passionate for the charm bracelets made in the 1960’s by Napier. At one point I had over 30 of them and I rarely wore them I just loved holding them. I had the colored fruit, the Asian theme, and my favorites was the marine theme with seashells and seahorses. Over the years I paid between $1.00 – $5.00 each for them and in early 2000, I sold them individually on eBay for $125.00 and up to 245.00 each. What a great return, right. Well yes but a day does not go by that I regret selling them. They gave me more happiness than the monies they brought.
As I became more sophisticated in my jewelry search I began to love all things Miriam Haskell, Eisenberg, Pennino and Boucher. All of these names seemed to come with a higher price but still affordable and all quite luxurious. Then there came Staret, McClelland-Barclay, Schreiner, Dujay, DeMario, Reja, Deja and Alfred Philippe and Alfred Spaney’s extra special pieces made for Crown Trifari. Needless to say I was smitten and would never turn back. After a while and as I was getting older, I started to understand the beauty of 19C Victorian and Art Nouveau and in particular the mourning pieces made during and after the Civil War. The Art Deco period pieces also caught my attention because of their architectural angled designs. Well enough about me…
Throughout the years it was truly guesswork as to what I should pay for a piece and then the harder part came when trying to find out how much a piece was worth. As a result I found that the public library had many jewelry price guides and I poured through them all for days on end and would pick out my next piece I was obsessing for. Through this research, I found three authors who stood out as being the best at giving the right information for just about anything you might need to know as an antique and vintage costume and fine jewelry collector or dealer.
The first is Jeanenne Bell. Jeanenne Bell has been on Antiques Roadshow as a jewelry appraiser and is one of America’s leading authorities on antique jewelry. She has written many books and the first book I bought of hers was “How to be a Jewelry Detective”. This book is filled to the brim with priceless information about the clues to solving jewelry mysteries. She gives easy to understand tips for testing materials, gem cuts, hardware and findings throughout the ages, marks and a whole lot more. I have recommended this book to literally 100’s of my buyers on eBay who may not be sure what gutta percha is, or is it ivory or bone and what is a briolette cut stone. She answers them all and she even has a small pocket size field guide to take along to the shops and flea markets.
My favorite book of hers is Collecting Victorian Jewelry which is a real treat for the eyes and is beautiful enough to be left out for others to peruse. In this book she shows an amazing range of incredible museum quality pieces of Costume and Fine jewelry. Each piece is a work of art and each has an easy to understand description and value assigned. She imparts the history associated with the Victorian era and who all of the main characters were. She enlightens the reader about this period in time that was all about romance, passion and heartache. Very good read and a very good aid to the serious period piece collector.
My next favorite author is Harrice Simons-Miller. I have two of her price guides, Costume Jewelry 2nd edition and Official Price Guide to Costume Jewelry 3rd edition. What I love about her books is that she knows her stuff as it relates to costume jewelry dating from early Art Deco up to the present. Her books are very good for identifying the major players in the costume and fashion design industries. She really clarifies what each jewelry designer’s signature look is and her photographs and descriptions will give you an edge when you are out in the field. Her values are truly representative of retail in fine antique or jewelry boutiques and give the reader the parameters as to what to spend to get your jewelry collection “fix”. She has bought from me on eBay on a couple of occasions and each piece she purchased was always a little odd and unexpected, making me think she knew of or was creating a trend which others were yet aware.
My third favorite author is Roseann Ettinger. She has a series of price guides that are not only about jewelry but other vintage collectibles with a lot of concentration on fashion and the fifties. Her jewelry price guides include her “popular” series and include “Forties and Fifties Popular Jewelry”, “Popular Jewelry of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s” and my all time favorite of hers “1840-1940 Popular Jewelry” the revised 3rd edition. Her price guide covers jewelry pieces that you actually might come across and be able to own for not a lot of money. Unlike Bell and Simons-Miller who are showing museum quality and hard to find pieces, the pieces shown in Ettingers are really quite attainable and I have actually had many of her pieces that she has described. Her photographs are quite large making it easy to see the details of the pieces and she doesn’t dwell on the glitzier side of jewelry but the real down to earth stuff that most of our mothers and grandmothers would have worn.
There are many great costume jewelry price guides out there from Nancy Schiffer, Lillian Baker, Christie Romero for Warman’s, Cheri Simonds, Ronna Lee Atkins and more, but my first three will give the beginner or even well seasoned antique and vintage costume or fine jewelry collector or dealer a well rounded wealth of knowledge and pricing guidelines.
For even more super jewelry tips and great jewelry to buy, visit Vintage Gems Emporium at www.vintagegemsemporium.com. Registration is free and easy.
About the Author: My name is Candace Daugherty and I live near Charleston, South Carolina. I am an entrepreneur and have worked as a retail design and marketing consultant with many internationally known retailers and fashion designers over the past 30 years. My true passion however is Antique and Vintage Costume and Fine Jewelry. I have collected jewelry for over 35 years and own many incredibly fabulous book pieces as shown in the many of the jewelry price guides discussed above.
Since October 1, 2008, I along with three others have founded the first of its kind, an exclusive auction boutique for antique, vintage and new costume and fine jewelry. We started Vintagel Gems Emporium at www.vintagegemsemporium.com with three philosophies in mind. The first is to be a specialty boutique in an Auction Venue just for the collector and specialist of antique and vintage costume and fine jewelry. The second is to be the lowest cost auction or fixed price venue on the internet. And the third is to put the entire Virtual Gems Emporium community first with unbelievable customer service and fair equal treatment of all trading partners.
About the Author
My name is Candace Daugherty and I live near Charleston, South Carolina. Since Mid September -October 2008 I along with three others have founded the first of its kind, an exclusive auction boutique for antique, vintage and new costume and fine jewelry. We started Vintage Gems Emporium at www.vintagegemsemporium.com with three concepts in mind. One, a special boutique environment in an Auction Venue just for the collector and specialist of antique and vintage costume and fine jewelry. Two, to be the lowest cost auction or fixed price venue on the internet. And three to put the entire Vintage Gems Emporium community first with unbelievable customer service and fair equal treatment of all trading partners.
Cloud Control – Vintage Books
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The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry $12.12 McClatchy’s selections include Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Frank O’Hara, Adrienne Rich, Rita Dove, Sharon Olds, |
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The Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature (Paperback) $20.01 Chaudhuri`s collection of stories and nonfiction pieces includes work by R. K. Narayan, Raja Rao, Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie, Nirmal Verma, and others–among them Rabindrinath Tagore, India`s only Nobel prizewinner. |
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The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories $10.55 This is a collection of 33 stories by writers including Dorothy Allison, Raymond Carver, Jamaica Kincaid, Mona Simpson, and John |
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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Paperback) $10.74 Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson penned the Millennium trilogy, which finally lands on American shores with THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. It`s the story of a financial journalist who agrees to investigate a 40-year-old kidnapping in exchange for hel… |
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Cutting for Stone (Paperback) $9.47 Twin brothers born of an illicit affair between an Indian nun and a British doctor experience love, loss, and the true healing power of medicine in this epic tale. Marion and Shiva Stone are raised as orphans at the Ethiopian mission hospital where the… |
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Nobody’s Fool $11.52 In North Bath, a down-at-the-heels town in upstate New York which is not unlike the Mohawk of Russo’s two previous novels, Sully |
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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet`s Nest (Paperback) $9.89 All Lisbeth Salander wants is to pursue her revenge–against the individuals and the institutions–that did their best to destroy her life. Unfortunately, as Steig Larsson opens his third and final chapter in his wildly popular Millennium series, Salan… |
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The Woman in Black (Paperback) $10.88 “An excellent ghost story… magnificently eerie… compulsive reading.” —Evening Standard   The classic ghost story by Susan Hill: a chilling tale about a menacing spectre haunting a small English town. … |
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No Disrespect $10.1 A sexual memoir from hip-hop artist Sister Souljah, who came to the nation’s attention during the 1992 Presidential campaign aft |
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Mama Day (Paperback) $9.86 The story of Ophelia Day and her fiance George Andrews is just the tip of the iceberg in MAMA DAY. Naylor narrates Ophelia`s family history on the island of Willow Springs, South Carolina. Ophelia is from a matriarchal family, whose head, Miranda “Mama… |
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Imperial Bedrooms (Paperback) $10.07 In IMPERIAL BEDROOMS, the debauched and narcissistic characters of Bret Easton Ellis`s seminal LESS THAN ZERO may have grown older, but they haven`t necessarily grown up. Narrator Clay, now a jet-setting screenwriter, travels to L.A. to cast his new fi… |
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The Girl Who Played with Fire (Paperback) $9.89 As part two of Stieg Larsson`s exceptionally well-received debut trilogy, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE follows THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO in style. Larsson introduced his title character Lisbeth Salander, the reclusive hacker with a fine-tuned se… |
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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Paperback) $11.52 Stieg Larsson`s #1 bestselling mystery featuring Lisbeth Salander is now a major motion picture directed by David Fincher, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, from Columbia Pictures/Sony. In theaters December 2011. The first volume in the Millennium… |
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French Women Don`t Get Fat (Paperback) $7.42 A gourmand`s guide to the slim life shares the principles of French gastronomy, the art of enjoying all edibles in proportion, arguing that the secret of being thin and happy lies in the ability to appreciate and balance pleasures, not in deprivation, … |
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Before You Know Kindness $14.34 Spencer McCullough is a member of an extreme activist group, the Federation for Animal Liberation (FERAL). When he is accidentally shot and seriously wounded by his 12-year-old daughter, Charlotte, with a rifle that belongs to Spencer’s brother-in… |
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The Stranger $7.8 In this stylistically simple, first-person tale of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beac |
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Bridge of Sighs (Paperback) $10.07 In the small, economically gutted town of Thomaston, N.Y., three friends and lovers, Lou C. Lynch (nicknamed “Lucy”), Bobby Marconi, and Sarah Berg, struggle with the emotional desolation of their lives, loves, and families. Richard Russo is a master a… |
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Unaccustomed Earth (Paperback) $10.1 Jhumpa Lahiri`s exquisite short stories deal with the subtle dramas, crises, and occasional tragedies of Bengali immigrants attempting to assimilate and thrive in America. |
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The Invisible Bridge (Paperback) $10.74 Julie Orringer follows up her acclaimed short-story collection HOW TO BREATHE UNDERWATER with a sweeping historical tale about lives, loves, and personal ambitions devastated by the relentless events of history. Hungarian Jew Andras Levi travels to Par… |
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The Hundred Secret Senses $14.29 Olivia is 3 years old when she discovers she has a half-sister, Kwan, who lives in China. When Kwan arrives to join the family, |
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Jane Eyre (Paperback) $9.85 Charlotte Brontk`s first novel, published in 1847, was based in part on the author`s own days in a brutal boarding school where two of her sisters died of tuberculosis; her characterization of the place in her first published work was an act of revenge… |
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The Flame Alphabet (Paperback) $11.12 Experimental fiction writer Ben Marcus adopts a more traditional narrative structure for his fourth book, THE FLAME ALPHABET. Telling the story of a Jewish couple living in upstate New York, Marcus crafts a story that reads something like a new renditi… |
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The Power of the Dog $12.96 Description not available. |
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The Other (Book) $11.58 Neil Countryman and John Williams meet at a high-school track event, and despite their class differences–Neil is a carpenter`s son, John the scion of an old moneyed Seattle family–the two young men forge a deep friendship based on their love of the w… |
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Letter to a Christian Nation (Paperback) $10.26 Sam Harris`s rebuttal of Christian fundamentalism is occasioned by the many letters he received following the publication of his best selling THE END OF FAITH. Many readers were astounded that he said he does not believe in God and does not consider th… |
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A Town Like Alice (Paperback) $10.1 "A harrowing, exciting, and in the end very satisfying war romance."HARPER`SA TOWN LIKE ALICE tells of a young woman who miraculously survived a Japanese "death march" in World War II, and of an Australian soldier, also a pr… |
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The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Paperback) $10.77 A direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in this century, The Death and Life of Great American Cities has, since its first publication in 1… |
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The Breast $9.33 Like Kafka’s hapless Gregor Samsa, Philip Roth’s David Kepesh wakes up one day to find himself transformed–not into a cockroach, but into an enormous breast. Roth manages to make this farcical situation surprisingly realistic, as Kepesh endures t… |
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El testamento Maya (Paperback) $11.88 An archeologist investigates the collision of an asteroid into the Earth and uncovers an ancient mystery with potential consequences for the entire planet. |
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The Ways of White Folks $11.05 This short-story collection was published in 1928. |
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Books $19.99 Books – Premium Poster |
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Thomson Advantage Books Vol. I : Vintage Verse $14.65 No Synopsis Available |
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Vintage Reading: From Plato To Bradbury: A Persona Tour Of Some Of The World’s Best Books $6.39 Vintage Reading brings eighty of the world's most unforgettable books out from behind the high castle walls, lowers the drawbridge, and welcomes readers inside. With lively and concise commentary, award-winning author Robert Kanigel throws an arm around the reader and becomes the tour guide to classics, best-sellers, lesser-known greats, and everything in-between. From St. Augustine's Confessions to Dorothy Parker's Stories, Kanigel presents a unique collection of essays unlike any other stuffy attempt at introducing the modern reader to Great Books.Vintage Reading is welcoming. It opens the door to eighty good books rather than post stern-faced guards around them. Before writing his critically acclaimed titles The Man Who Knew Infinity and The One Best Way, Kanigel penned these essays to guide time-starved bibliophiles to important books they may have missed. The essays appeared in such publications as Baltimore's Evening Sun, Cleveland's Plain Dealer, and The Los Angeles Times. Vintage Reading brings eighty of the world's most unforgettable books out from behind the high castle walls, lowers the drawbridge, and welcomes readers inside. With lively and concise commentary, award-winning author Robert Kanigel throws an arm around the reader and becomes the tour guide to: Books That Shaped the Western World Books on Everyone's List of Literary Classics Books on Many a List for Burning Lighter Fare: Good Reads, Best Sellers One-of-a-Kinds "But I Know What I Like": Books on Aesthetics & Style Making Hard Work Easy: Great Works of Popularization Not Robinson Crusoe…Lesser Known Classics The Realm of the Spirit: Holy & Human From St. Augustine's Confessions to Dorothy Parker's Stories, Kanigel presents a unique collection of essays unlike any other stuffy attempt at introducing the modern reader to Great Books.Vintage Reading is welcoming. It opens the door to eighty good books rather than post stern-faced guards around them. |
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Happy Birthday (Gift Books) $5.99 This cheery, cheeky little book is jam-packed with birthday fun for anyone–from teens to octogenarians. A chunky, spunky collection of celebratory images and happy birthday sentiments, Happy Birthday is brimming with a wide range of festive graphics, including stills of famous birthdays in movies ranging from Gone with the Wind to A Streetcar Named Desire to Lord of the Rings, pictures of mouth-watering birthday cakes, cupcakes, and other sweet treats, vintage and contemporary birthday card and birthday party invitation art, and much more. Photographs of the birthday celebrations of such eclectic notables as J.F.K., Mick Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor, and Stalin are also featured, and clever and eloquent birthday wishes are liberally sprinkled throughout. This stylishly designed blend of vibrant color and black-and-white images and heartfelt sentiments in this charming compendium will brighten anyone’s birthday–even those of us who would normally prefer that our birthdays go unnoticed! |
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Bread–and roses;: The struggle of American labor, 1865-1915 (Vintage sundial books) $10.03 This book is in Good Used condition |
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Thomson Advantage Books: Pocketful of Plays: Vintage Drama, by Madden, Volume 2 $26.98 This book is in Used condition |
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Vintage Resin Home Decoration Antelope Bookends 2Pcs $47.39 Have you ever get bored with your disordered books? Aesthetics and functionality combined, our convenient vintage bookends are well known for their design. Keep your books safe and in style with the vintage bookends. It’s also a perfect gift for your little princess to keep all of her precious books. These multipurpose decorative bookends are adorable must-have accessory, and it is the best gift for your classmates and workmates. |
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Blue Books $13.09 Blue Books |
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Vintage $14.99 Pascal Normand Vintage – Art Print |
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Kafka on Books $59.99 Kafka on Books – Wall Decal |
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Street Books $24.99 Street Books – Photographic Print |
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Ration Books $24.99 Ration Books – Photographic Print |
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Shopping for Books $19.99 Shopping for Books – Premium Poster |
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Holding Books $34.99 Holding Books – Giclee Print |
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The First Books $39.99 The First Books – Giclee Print |
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Fountain of the Books $24.99 Fountain of the Books – Photographic Print |
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Books Carry $14.99 Books Carry – Art Print |
