Customer Reviews

Costume Jewelry: Identification and Price Guide (Confident Collector)

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Quite a good reference book on costume jewelry! It is divided into chapters by eras, i.e. - 20's, 30's, etc.... Not only does this book show jewelry and give prices, but it also gives info on what was going on in the jewelry industry during that era, which gives you help in identifying the age of pieces not found in the book. The pictures are mostly in B&W, but are very crisp and well photographed. The few color pictures are stunning. One note of caution to newbies - many of the book values in here are quite high - do not expect to get anywhere near that amount when you sell a piece, unless you sell in a very large city, and even then expect to "discount" a little. In all, however, this book has a ton of info and resources (even a dealer's directory!), and is well worth buying.

I sell vintage costume jewelry for a living so, as you can probably imagine, I have a lot of books on the subject. This is definitely one of the best. It's filled with fantastic background information on the making of costume jewelry, the top name designers and popular styles. The photos (b&w and color) provide good illustrations and are often of rarer, less-frequently-seen styles. I also like the fact that it's a smaller paperback book (as opposed to a large format hardcover). It's easier to take to antique/jewelry shows and thumb through when necesary.

This book has wonderful information about different styles of costume jewelry, history, and manufacturing. For me however, I found that there were not enough photos, and the photos that were included, because they are black and white and because of the type of paper the book is printed on, are just not clear enough.

One of the reasons I bought a number of books on this subject was to help me recognize the pieces when I saw them. Because the photos are not clear it was harder for me to put my new found knowledge to practice in the real world, because I wasn't quite sure if what I was seeing was the same as what was in the book.

This book was perhaps a little more helpful than another by this author pertaining to costume jewelry but it still leaves much to be desired for the beginner trying to learn about prices and pieces of costume jewelry. I do not recommend.