Customer Reviews

Vintage Ladies Compacts: Identification & Value Guide

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the opening page to almost the middle of the book is absolutely wonderful! The photographs are exquisitely done in color, the descriptions are complete & there are usually no more than 4-6 photos per page. Suddenly, it stops and the reader is left with pages filled with very small, black & white photos and wondering "What the heck happened??" The smaller compacts should have been the ones in the larger pictures and they are screaming for color! As for the educational & reference content, this book is hard to beat and will make an excellent tool for reading about the mechanisms of vintage compacts. Plus, the variety of compacts is mind-boggling! Recommended purchase but don't expect 100% satisfaction with the photographs & layouts.

Gerson knows her compacts--she is an absolute authority, and this book gives many fine examples of compacts from all periods of time as well as good information about collecting. The color photos are a joy to look at. However, I don't like the way the book is organized--it's difficult to find what your looking for because things aren't arranged in logical order. In addition, I think it's a shame to have black and white photos--the majority of compacts really can't be appreciated unless they are seen in color, hence my 4-star rating. Mueller's two books are arranged better, with color photos for every compact, and Gerson should have tried to emulate that while making the book her own. But this book complements Mueller's, and for a rabid compact collector, this book is a welcome addition to the other books out there.

Brand new, year 2001, outstanding 2nd edition of this guide to ladies' compacts. The beautiful 368 page hardbound volume with laminated covers features more than 2,000 large, full color photos of the highest quality. Major topics include History of Compacts, Guide for the Collector, Inventions, Designs, Tips for cCllectors, and much more. Each of the super photos includes plenty of descriptive text, along with values. Some trade materials are also provided. A must-have volume for fans of this popular collectible. Add it to your library.

This is my compact Bible! I have learned so much from it, just wonderful! I refer to it every day, and wish there were more like it.

I learned so much from reading this book. I highly recommend for anyone who want to get into to collecting vintage compacts.

This book is simply beautiful. It is full of every kind of example of vintage compacts made, the photography of the compacts is stunning and many are in color. Plus it includes useful information for compact collectors on the history of compacts, helpful hints in collecting , vintage advertisments of compacts and how to identify and determine exact date compacts were made through patten numbers which Gerson includes at the end of the book. I got my copy of this book from Gerson herself through the Compacts collector club which she is the president of, autographed for me by her and although this particular edition of her book is out of print I would highly recommend her new one vintage and vogue ladys compacts as well. For all those fellow compact collectors these books are a must.