This book may be the most important Herman Miller reference sorce out there. It out lines, with origanal catalog photos, what most collectors consider the most important design period ever.

This book has lots of beautiful photos. If you like "classic herman miller" by Leslie A.Pina ,You had to buy this one. I promise you like it!!!

Futuristic lamps your passion? Then get this book. Sure, these babies are all almost fifty years old but what a collection. This is obviously a labor of love for the author. He even gives the reader display sheets used by department stores. The color photos are magnificent. Even if you are just a lover of the wild and crazy fashions and designs of the 1950s, this is a must own book. Who knew that tools for lighting could be so much fun and so imaginative.

"Chase Complete" more than lives up to its title; it is a comprehensive reference for the Chase collector and for anyone interested in the consumer products manufactured by Chase Brass in the 1930's and early 1940's. It is a meticulously researched book, richly illustrated by professional photographs of almost uniformly top quality examples. It is well written with wit and humor. No self-serving author-collector rhetoric here. Five stars for sure!

EXCELLANT! THE most comprehensive and thoroughly researched book on the Chase Brass & Copper Company available. Wonderful information on the history of the company and the industrial designers responsible for the innovative & modern designs. Also included are reproductions of original Chase sales brochures and the retail sales sites. High quality photography along with detailed identifications make this book extremely helpful to collectors. Looking forward to seeing the follow up book on Chase lamps.

As a collector of Art Deco, I really enjoyed this book. Very good photogaphy and very well written. The author did a lot of homework in preparing this. A great book for Art Deco collectors.

I have nearly every vintage purse book ever published and I must say this is definatelly the worst. Don't bother, save your money. The purse has virtually no information, other than "prices". Prices that are nowhere realistic. Pictures are plain and boring. You can see better purses at a thrift store. Wish I could get my money back :P

I am so happy that I purchaed this book! I own several books on collectables, including other purse books, and this is by far the best vintage purse book yet. The photography is outstanding-- very colorful and fun to look at. The information in the book is also accurate and useful. Donald-Brian Johnson obviously did his homework and presents in a casual yet informative way. If you plan to buy only one purse book in the future, this should definitely be it!!

Popular Purses: It's in the Bag! is a refreshing oasis in a world of often mundane collector books. Donald-Brian Johnson and Leslie Pina have done it again!! Ms. Pina's photos make this book a sheer delight to behold and Mr. Johnson's text makes learning about mid-twentieth century purses a rewarding experience. The book is obviously well researched and contains lots of interesting and useful information for the purse collector. And, as in previous books, Johnson's writing style assures that you'll never be bored. A beautiful book in every way!!

During the 50's & 60's , Ed Wormley and Dunbar were leaders in the fine furniture industry. Leslie Pina's reprint of one of the catalogs from that period gives collectors a nice reference point. The company is about much more than what is presented in this basic presentation, hopefully someone will write a more comprehensive reference on the entire collection. I've heard word that the company is coming back and going back into production with some of the primary pieces. That would be great! The book on Edward Wormley is also worth checking out.

Great starting point on Dunbar.. I agree with the review that said they miss some key points about the company and the top designs, but this is only a reprint of one of their catalogs, not the definitive story of Dunbar.

Enjoy it for what it is.

Edward Wormley and Dunbar have much more to offer than what is presented in this snapshot... nice to see the copies of the breakout advertising campaigns that Dunbar invested in to promote the product launches.... Check out the Edward Wormley profile book by Judith Gura and Chris Kennedy - its very good.

It would be nice to see some of the Dunbar pieces back in production... quality pieces are hard to find and often expense because of the auction setting.

I collect Blenko glass, and I got this book with the expectation that it would help me distinguish Blenko from the other WV glassmakers. The book is full of wonderful photographs, but there is only so much to be learned from a two dimensional object. There is a brief history of each glassmaker, and therein lies the problem. The history is much too brief, and there is very little if any discussion of what distinguishes each glassmaker from its competitors. The pictures are great, but the book left me wanting more information, and I came away from it unsatisfied.

Subtitled "Color Along the River," this book features handcrafted glassware produced in the 1950's and 1960's along the Ohio River Valley, an area in West Virginia famed for its glassmaking. The book contains over 400 color photos of glassware, plus labels, catalog page reprints, company histories, and a price guide. Featured companies include Blenko, Pilgrim, Kanawha, Rainbow, A.F. Bischoff, Fostoria, Viking, and Morgantown. There is also a chapter on cased and satin glass from international sources, such as Italy and Scandinavia.

This book is a wonderful source of information on glassware that was poorly documented elsewhere in 1995: crackle glass, all those colorful decanters with pointy teardrop stoppers, cased glass, pinched vases, and oversized bud vases. (Many of these items were not marked, but carried paper labels which quickly wore off.) There is also a chapter on figural glass, featuring the fish, birds, and elephants that were so popular during these decades.

Much of this type of glass is definitely an aquired taste. People seem to love it or hate it: currently it doesn't seem to have the mass following of, say, Depression glass or Fenton. Colors range from the garish (orange) to the gloomy (brown, gray), and items range from the delicate to the downright clunky. Some of the styles are just too recent for people to get too excited about. Having said that, Blenko in particular is seeing quite an upswing in popularity: some of its large decanters--especially amberina--are currently selling for well over $100. And crackle glass has a lot of afficionados. There is no doubt that glass of the 1950's and 1960's will be highly collectible in the near future. This is a unique book, which highlights "a pronounced awareness of color, form, and texture" which took place during these decades.

I am a collector of viking glassware. This book is the single most helpful book I have found. It has great color photos and, what I find most interesting, actual pages from original viking glassware catalogues. It also has a great section reviewing the different labels from different series. Additionally, it contains a rather descriptive and detailed table of estimated values of the different pieces today. The book does a good job of giving histories of the companies inside as well. There are other types of glassware from the same geographical area (New Martinsville, WV) covered in the book as well. I, however, can not list them for you as my original copy of the book was recently destroyed in a fire so I am online today to order my new copy of the book!

Softback, color, 158 pp, includes introduction, catalogue, bibliography, price guide, and index. This is a wonderfully photographed overview of the Kensington line of Art Deco and Machine Age style aluminum designed by Lurelle Guild.

The collector is provided with basic background historical and biographical information on the Kensington line, Lurelle Guild, and Alcoa. The real strength of this book lies in the lavish photographs of many Kensington pieces.

The book is incomplete in that many items are not pictured. While more complete guides are rumored to be in preparation, this book it is still the first and only guide to Kensington and an indispensible source of information for the art deco, machine age, and aluminum community.

If you collect mid-century plastic radios you should own this book. Sixty-six manufacturers are represented with 450 color photos, the popular companies, such as Crosley, GE, Motorola, RCA and Zenith each have several models shown.

Besides a photo of the radio there are plenty of close-ups of tuning knobs, speaker grills, frequency ranges and each maker has a close-up of their logo. Also included are some period ads from the fifties.

Page 176 shows the front of a Trav-ler 5022 from 1950 and on the facing page is a shot of the back of the set. What a contrast, while the front is the best the marketing/design folk could come up with the back shows a clutter of wires, batteries and evidence of cheap mass production.

Looking at the design of the various models it becomes clear that as these radios all do the same thing it became important to sell the product on other (non-existant) virtues. The names (Wide-fi, Transitone) reflect high technology, big tuning knobs reflect scientific precision, some makers logos are heraldic reflecting snob values, the plastic cases were in bright eye-catching colors.

I think it would have helped if the dimensions of the sets had been included and the photography is very bland with the radios set against insipid backgrounds. Radios can look good, have a look at Philip Collins 'Radios:The Golden Age' and 'Radios Redux', dozens of beautiful shots mostly against a black background which make the radios jump out from the page.

This is a book though that any serious collector and those interested in fifties popoular culture and product design should have.

Found this very hasty in some sections---lazy writing and editing in one place (pages 148-171). They just reprinted an old Stow and Davis office furniture catalog without giving values though they advertise on the cover that they will give values. This is not the first Schiffer book that has done this kind of cheap content padding. I would not buy another Schiffer Book, in fact, without really checking it out for padding. Also glaring omissions in content. The chair section has not one mention of the Wassily chair by Breuer/Knoll. Save your money and try another book.

This is the best 50's furnature book by far! Pina knows this eara 100%.. Great pictures! From Eames to Miller. My book has drewl all over it!