If you are a serious purse collector, you really can't live without Mrs. Haerigs' purse book! This huge volume displays extensive full color photos of more purses than you can even imagine. The copy helps fill in some of those gaps in your knowledge and helps you figure out which purses are rare enough to spend the big bucks on! There only a few draw backs. In a couple of places, the wrong picture is reffered to in the text and you have to flip around until you find what is being refered to. Some of the text also seems to wander abit and lose focus. However, these flaws are easily outweighed by the sheer volume of pictures and the fact that the book is written by the pre-eminent authority on purses. Take a deep breath and fork out the greens, you can't become a real collector without this book at hand!!

With so very few books written about beaded purse collecting, it is not difficult to encounter this book if you are looking to learn more about the history and construction of these works of art. Unfortunately, the text is written in an ostentatious style and really gives little serious historical information. The section on restoration actually shows very little real restoration for a book titled "Restoring and Collecting...". The price on this book is a bit steep too. There's a picture of a tile stove in the middle of the book -- with no explanation or continuity in the text. A tile stove? In a book about purses? The purses that appear in the book seem to be mostly from the author's collection, who apparently has found a great way to write off her collection and trips overseas with a book on collecting.

This book does contain some valuable tidbits of information, but it is more than a little disappointing. Having created and restored purses of my own, I was expecting this book to provide definitive information about the restoration process. But alas, the author's instructions are vague in most cases - she offers "tips" rather than true instruction. In her historic overview, one also questions whether or not she has ever made a purse herself - she doesn't seem to understand the process of knitting in the round.

This volume does contain some beautiful pictures and is very nicely put together. Slightly overpriced, it is still an interesting book for purse collectors and those interested in restoration, but don't look to it for the answers to all of your beading questions.

I was a little disappointed with some of the content, the information to repair should be a little bit more detailed but thats just my opinion.