Kovels' Bottles Price List, 11th Edition [Paperback]

Ralph Kovel (Author), Terry Kovel (Author)

Book Description

Series: Kovel's Bottles Price List | Publication Date: March 9, 1999

The Most Reliable Bottles Price Guide Available.

Current prices of more than 12,000 old and modern bottles make this the most comprehensive book of its kind. The 11th edition of Ralph and Terry Kovel's widely respected best-seller is bigger and better, with more information and all new prices. More than 80 categories of bottles, including figurals, bitters, flasks, ink, beer, milk, soda, perfume, medicine, Avon, Jim Beam, Ezra Brooks, and others. Here you'll also find:
Clubs and publications for bottle collectors
Auction houses, bottle museums, and company archives
Company histories
A picture dictionary of bottle shapes -- a new feature this year

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The Kovels are arguably the authorities on antiques and collectibles in this country.” —Los Angeles Times

“Probably the single best book to have—a real standard for antique bottle collectors.”—Antiquebottles.com

“As millions already know, any book carrying the Kovel byline will be as reliable, informative, and fact-filled as any collector could wish.”—American Country Collectibles --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

The Most Reliable Bottles Price Guide Available.

Current prices of more than 12,000 old and modern bottles make this the most comprehensive book of its kind. The 11th edition of Ralph and Terry Kovel's widely respected best-seller is bigger and better, with more information and all new prices. More than 80 categories of bottles, including figurals, bitters, flasks, ink, beer, milk, soda, perfume, medicine, Avon, Jim Beam, Ezra Brooks, and others. Here you'll also find:
Clubs and publications for bottle collectors
Auction houses, bottle museums, and company archives
Company histories
A picture dictionary of bottle shapes -- a new feature this year

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Random House Reference; 11th edition (March 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609803123
• ISBN-13: 978-0609803127
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,171,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Kovels', June 15, 2001

By 

Sheila M. Willson (Johannesburg, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kovels' Bottles Price List, 11th Edition (Paperback)

It had a lot of good information, but hardly ANY pictures to help identify the bottles. The good pictures were of bottles most of us will never see or find. What about the bottles we find at auctions, garage sales etc. Lots of us are NOVICE collectors, and we need more pictures to help us identify what we have. As far as I'm concerned, I've wasted my money. It isn't much help to this new novice. If your a professional bottle collector, this is the book for you.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for reference, but book is full of holes, August 16, 2001

By 

zen "zenbeer" (Summit, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kovels' Bottles Price List, 11th Edition (Paperback)

This was one of the first bottle books I got to start categorizing my extensive collection. I am far from being a novice, however, my end-goal was to price some of my rarer bottles, and this book did that pretty well. What I found disappointing was the total LACK of photos (hardly any), and large gaping holes in sections such as "cures", "medicines", and "bitters". Hardly any of us will ever see a $4000 bottle in our lifetime other than online - but Kovels' persists in only showing photographs of the rarest of bottles. Not to mention, many of their prices are extremely inflated estimates obviously made by someone of Sotheby's blood, not us plain ol' diggers. To be honest, this book helped ID about 20% of my bottles in my bottle collection - so I found it useful, and since it was a gift, even more so - I doubt if I'd buy it myself. More pictures, better categorization, and breaking the book into smaller books with more detailed pictures is what I would do. This book could easily be broken into 10 better books with some effort. Novice bottle collectors would be better off trying Antique Glass and Bottle Collectors magazine if you want better information and pictures.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A fast guide to identifying and pricing old bottles, May 17, 2000

By 

Sean J. Holland - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kovels' Bottles Price List, 11th Edition (Paperback)

Organized by bottle type (medicine, beer, etc.), this comprehensive book quickly enables the reader to track down a wide variety of bottles from by-gone days. The authors have wisely included descriptions of various bottle types and their intended uses. This will help novice bottle collectors to better research their bottles as the purpose of many bottled products no longer holds any signficance to modern folks (this is especially true for medicines and elixirs that existed before the dawn of the Food & Drug Administration). Readers would be better served if more pictures could be found as well as timelines regarding a bottler's production dates. But the omission of these items is understandable regarding the overall convenience and ease of using this book.