Customer Reviews

Vintage Quilts Collecting, Dating, Preserving and Appraising

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

 

 

First the pros: lots of quality photos, covering a wide variety of patterns and eras.
Cons: basically, this book needs to be titled just "Vintage Quilts". The "Collecting, Dating, and Preserving" material is limited to just 4 pages at the beg. of the book. The rest of the volume is a "Value Guide", with a short description under each quilt photo, a notation as to "excellent condition", "fair condition" etc, and a dollar value estimate. The problem here is that nowhere in the book do they state their definition of what they consider to be good, excellent, etc. There's no excuse for this--both Aug and Newman are listed as judges in the book bios--defining their terms should have been covered in the opening pages. Without that, it makes their appraisals pretty much useless to the reader. (The photos are not large enough to show the quilt's condition.)
The other thing I thought was odd is that they don't compare individual quilts. I.e. show us two twin-size Bowtie quilts and explain [what they're worth.] In other words, show us how to appraise and value individual quilts. Which IS the whole point of the book, according to the title anyway. (Dang it, now I'm annoyed all over again!)
Needless to say, I'm returning my copy.

Great photos - nice quilts. That is, unfortunately all I can say good about the book, and there are a lot of better buys out there with nice quilt photos. These self-appointed "experts" have added little to the body of available information on vintage quilts. If these three are appraising quilts then I wonder about the program that sponsors them due to the fact that book is full of inaccuracies. Discussion on how they arrived at the values (and many are questionable) is lacking which would be nice seeing that is their area of "expertise". It is almost like they pulled the numbers from a hat. The book does little to promote the credibility of the author's and certainly isn't the publisher's best effort, it's just a pretty price guide that unfortunately like all price guides was out of date the day it was released.

I bought it with great expectations, I read it in dismay, I was disappointed with the lack of information. It's nothing more than a printed format for the author's collection of quilts, with no relationship to what's really "out there"....yikes, my educated guesses would make better reading! I had it a week, and then gave it away to someone who likes looking at pictures.

I've debated commenting about this book for almost a year now, and now that I have heard there is to be a sequel feel that I can't hold back. In good conscience I cannot recommend this effort to anyone. Such authors who claim to have so much experience should have been able to expound and give reasons for their value conclusions. Unfortunately, those who are unaware do not know the reputation of the authors is very misleading; those with the experience they say they have would have known better. Save your money -

I purchased this book because I own several quilts that I have picked up over the years and wanted to figure out dates and get an idea of how to go about valuing them. While the title of this book suggests this is a possibility a mere page and a half are devoted to identification, dating, pricing, care and storage. The remainder of the book is a catalogue of their collection and while they own some lovely quilts I was not interested in a coffee table book but rather one that provided some real data.

There are lovely photographs of more than 100 quilts and if you want to browse through a lovely collection, this is a nice book, though there are better for this as well. If you are looking for information on valuing your own quilts, this book will get you no closer.

This book has joined my growing collection of quilt history books. Every page has coloured photographs of quilts or blocks. The details of each quilt or block contains size, age, condition, value, maker etc. This book was printed in 2002 but is still relevant today. Whether you are a quilt collector, historian, or quilt maker this book is full of inspiration.

This is a quality reference for quilts from the period. But, it only provides a brief description and photo of each quilt. It will not tell you how determine the value of a quilt.