Customer Reviews

Pictorial Guide To Pottery And Porcelain Marks

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you need a history of each pottery manufacturer, this book is not for you. The author cuts right to the chase and gives us what we need -- an authoritative directory of makers' marks. He provides a photograph of the mark and right next to it an illustration of a typical product of the factory. Although in some cases experts might quibble about what is "typical" the result is an incredible cumulative reference source. Dating has been derived from Kovel, Lehner and other reputable sources. The marks are arranged alphabetically, which is about as user-friendly as this sort of tool gets. Add to this good indices, and we have a reference tool that no museum, collector or dealer should be ashamed to own.

He went through a lot of trouble to get actual color pictures of the pottery and porcelain along with the marks. I have a lot of books on marks but I always consult this book first because it will show the type of pottery made by a potter along with the marks. I really like it and wish he would do a second edition. It does not include histories or other detail of the potters.

This book is what I have been looking for for quite some time now. It gives a VERY comprehensive overview on marks from all over the world, and their usage years. If you are, like me, a seller of antiques and vintage items....need a quick reference for your research to pin down the dates? THIS IS IT! This book will NOT give you company history and prices. It will however give you the first step in identifying that piece that you found in grandma's attic years ago. Excellent photos for EVERY piece mentioned. Also, it is in alphabetical order, VERY easy maneuvering.
5 STARS all the way!

The idea of putting a picture of an item together with its mark is admirable, and the book is useful in this regard. It is not a complete guide, but then again, no book of marks is.

However, the date information given for some pieces (for example, Syracuse China) is very inaccurate, and there are misidentifications that should not have happened in a book of this type. I would not rely on the dates shown in any way whatsoever.

The unfortunate part is that there are sources that could have been consulted to obtain the correct information (including titles from the same publisher).

I would write forever about how great this book is But I will do this I am looking everywhere for more books like this and I cannot find anymore. This book Is one I take to every auction and flea market Well IT stays with me all the time never know what I might come up on. This is the best book pictures are great and sooooooo HELPFULL worth a goldmind to me. I do not know how to live without it. I think because there are no more like this I am going to make a book of all my stuff . Who has time to read and read when you are on a journey of finding the treasures out there. THis book has helped me make so much money too. I await to find another book to help find plates etc etc. BUY IT worth more than what I paid.

It's true, there are numerous marks, but I was truly disappointed that they were pictures taken on the object and the problem is they are not readable. The reason for having reference is to help identify a mark and year and I would have preferred an actually factory mark so it was legible and then how it might appear on product. Not all that helpful.

THIS BOOK IS GOOD FOR THOSE OF YOU WANTING NICE COLOR PICTURES AND CORRESPONDING MARKS. HOWEVER, THIS IS NOT A PRICE GUIDE AND THERE'S VERY LITTLE HISTORY. IT WOULD BE HARD TO FIND YOUR MARK IN THIS BOOK.

Excellent resource book for china & pottery marks, quality photographs of many marks, well organized. Highly recommend.

The good news: this book has thousands of photos of ceramic items with their backstamps. The bad news: there are many inaccuracies of company names, typographical errors, errors of dating, and other errors. Given the over 7000 photographs in the book, perhaps it is to be expected that there was insufficient proofreading or fact checking before the book was published. The book is interesting to browse, but it has not been a reliable reference book. However, it is useful as a jumping off point, when used in conjunction with other reference materials.

This is the first mark identifier I bought and was really impressed with the color photos of the marks along with an example of the piece. I was able to identify and date many of the pieces from my collection and date items I've found since buying this book. It became very handy when it came time to clean out my great aunt and uncles home this past winter. That being said, I've since discovered there are many marks not included or variations missing, i.e. Nippon marks and Frankoma. The dates on some are too broad. The color photos are nice to have but some marks or the coresponding piece did not photo well. I understand no guide is ever complete, and if you were to compile every single mark and variation this would probably be a multi-volume set. For me, this book is a good starting point, but I usually have to use other sources to narrow down dates.