As a child, I loved unicorns, and I loved Medieval and Renaissance art. Naturally I've always like the unicorn tapestries. I used to have a print of one of the tapestries hanging in my bedroom. When I saw this book, I just had to get it. I was, however, a little disappointed. The story (a made up story about the characters pictured in the tapestries) is ok, but a bit contrived. The illustrations, however, I don't really like. They are simple, washed out paintings that don't go at all with the style of the tapestries (which are also pictured in the book). I personally think that a book that takes place in a certain time period should be illsustrated in that time period. The illustrations here have nothing in common with the tapestries and are of an inferior quality. I did, however, read this story to my third grade students when we were talking about Medieval and Renaissance art. They did seem to enjoy it.

Issues are complex. More suitable for advance taders. But I am getting to that stage, so the book came at the right time. Software is great too.

You need to know that there are NO color pictures in this guide. This book has small b&w photos of what must be nearly all of R.A. Fox's prints with a price guide. It's great to know all the names of the pictures that I have, and the one's that I've seen that I would like to have. However, this book is better for someone with better eyes than I have. For me, the b&w photos are too small to distinguish much of the detail.

William Price is indeed an overlooked architect. While I'm hesistant to call him a genius, his work has a breadth seldom seen in the work of his contemporaries. He was one of the last of the Philadelphia architects to come from a background of manual training rather than an academic background, but clearly he was able to apply the lessons of contemporary practice learned from books, and stretch into new areas of the Arts and Crafts movement and advanced design in reinforced concrete.

The author spends an inordinate amount of time in the book describing how Philadelphia, with a strong heritage of innovative industrial design is left behind in the architectural world due to an academic bias of the press based in New York and Boston. While this is important to Price's reputation, it has little to do with his actual work. The prose in the book is repititious, reading as a series of loosely related lectures rather than a single thesis, and the book design does not help the reader.

The illustrations, largely drawn from the firm's archive now held by the author, are very well produced, but could have been supplemented by more new photography. A significant number of Price's buildings do survive, and color photography would bring out the great qualities of material, color, and texture that were so important to his work.

In summary, a book on Price was long overdue, but one would have hoped that it would focus more on the great qualities of his architecture.

Haugen's book is pretty good in some parts -- and really bad in others. The efficient markets hypothesis of finance does not hold up if it is interpreted as the joint hypothesis that stocks (and other financial assets) are valued on a discounted dividends (or cash flow or earnings) basis and that prices reflect all relevant information. But if the first part of this proposition fails, the second may still hold. Haugen doesn't seem to realize this, while his conclusions -- giving the subtitle -- rely on the jointness of the hypoothesis strongly. Furthermore, to conclude that since the conditions for a particular derivation fail, the conclusion fails is simply wrong in logic, and that is exactly what Haugen is arguing. The review in not very technical terms of several places where strong "anomalies" make one doubt efficient-market valuation is well done. The analysis of the problems with the market and their consequences is fatuously bad. Instead of giving a coherent argument -- preferably one backed with some research results -- Haugen produces a pathetically silly fantasy tale, and some unsubstantiated conclusions. The bad unfortunately outweighs the good; this book is better avoided!

A total waste of money. It is just a pile-up of diagrams that remind you of your Statistics class in college. The writing is incoherent, boring and plain terrible. In the book, there are repeated mockings of college professors which is real dumb. Ironically, Haugen himself is a professor. Hey, I would not take this guy's class.

I serious question the indepence of the two readers that gave the book a 5-star. Are they related in any way to Robert Haugen?

Although it is a bit strange that he has a story in the middle of the book describing a future political scenario in the world of 24/7 markets, Haugen makes a compelling case for the creation of volatility via the market itself, and not exogenous forces. The reviews above seem to be missing the point a bit. You may feel a bit cheated if you expect all academic writing and come across the story. I think that's what happened above.

Either way, CURSE THAT BRIGHTON BELLOW!

As a fairly new clock collector I was looking for information to help me when purchasing clocks off of ebay. This was the first book I bought and I haven't looked at it since the day it came in the mail. I came across the Tran Duy Ly books shortly after this and purchased one, the one for Ingraham clocks and watches. I used this book constantly and have since purchased three more, (for Ansonia, Seth Thomas and New Haven). I pull them out every time I am interested in a clock. They are extremely thorough and accurate. Plus, you can get updates just for the prices, you don't have to buy a whole new book.

This book is going to be one that stays on the bookshelf and will rarely, if ever, be referenced. Purchase the ones by Tran Duy Ly instead.

Price Guide to Antique Clocks by Robert and Harriett Swedberg contains information on the identification of American clocks from the mid-19th century until about 1940. There are more than 600 photographs with identifying information in this book. These are different photographs than were included in their 1989 book, "American Clocks and Clockmakers". While prices for the clocks were given, there was no information about whether these prices were retail or auction prices or how the prices were obtained.

In the Cthulhu Mythos, Clark Ashton Smith's The Book of Eibon ranks up there with Lovecraft's Necronomicon and Derleth's De Vermis Mysteriis; imaginary works of such soul-searing occult horror that readers put their own sanity and salvation at risk to peruse them. They form the basis of several story cycles and Mythos writers "quote" from them regularly. Chaosium's newest book in their Mythos series is an attempt to recreate The Book of Eibon using stories and poems written by Clark Ashton Smith, Lin Carter, Richard L. Tierney and others. At the bottom line, the attempt is courageous, but sadly, a failure for several reasons:

First, trying to create a legendary work of cosmic horror is impossible. Though many of the stories in the book are worthy of the Mythos label, reality cannot compete with the imagination. I wanted a good read to keep me up at night, not just a few hours of amusement.

Second, there is too much of Lin Carter in the book. Like Derleth, Carter was a rabid Mythos fan in love more with the idea than the atmosphere and thought it sufficient to make a story unearthly through simply listing a long litany of Mythos terms and names. Though some of Carter's stories are worth reading, such as From The Archives of the Moon, most are quickly forgettable.

Third, Price, who has edited most of the Chaosium works stumbles for the first time. His introductions to the stories give too much away, the worst example being his introduction to Lin Carter's In the Vale of Pnath where he reveals the ending, ruining what is probably one of the few actually disturbing stories in the collection. Also unnecessary to the point of distraction are the innumerable comparisons of the literary creation of The Book of Eibon to the formation of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Yes, Price is a seminary professor, but not every reader is interested in lectures in the questionable science of Biblical Higher Criticism.

Readers who are collecting the Chaosium Mythos series will want to purchase The Book of Eibon and there are a few gems between its covers,...

scymanski has an ok story here. price has a good one about the gorgon. that one was very enjoyable, and had some lovely details. otherwise, this was dreary read. so many of these stories were not only badly invented, but seemed so uninspired to. i almost felt sorry for the writers, for making so bad stories. i think this is chaosium's worst.

I could not agree more with the 2 "negative" reviews I saw. I would not have 90% of these cards in my album if I had gotten them for FREE! "Personal taste" aside, to show cards in such poor condition is mind-blowing, especially in a book whose cover promises much more. I'm a very recent collector of Holiday postcards, so I've been buying every reference book I could find. "POSTMARKED YESTERYEAR" by Pamela Apkarian-Russell is a wonderful book. Joe Hohmann, Madia, PA

I purchased this book because I collect antique Halloween items,
including postcards. I bought this book hoping to learn
something new about Halloween postcards, instead, I feel like I
should contact the authors and explain a few things to them!!!

The Halloween section in this book was highly disappointing
since there was a grand total of EIGHT pages of Halloween!!!
What a let down!!!

Many of the postcards photographed for this book were in
horrible condition. The authors didn't even bother to tell
readers about how condition really determines the value of an
antique postcard. Nor did the authors even attempt to educate
readers on how to date antique postcards, which postcard artists
are the most collectible, etc.

The prices given (at least in the Halloween section) were
horribly outdated!!!

The cover is pretty, and the format of the book is attractive,
however, there is NO actual information given in this book that
is helpful to people hoping to learn about antique holiday
postcard collecting. I am very ashamed of myself that I spent
hard-earned money on this waste!

This book is by far the worst example of a postcard price guide that I have ever seen. With the exception of some of the Halloween postcards, the prices given are beyond outrageous. Ninety percent of the postcards it illustrates can be found at any postcard show in a dealer's .25 cent box, if they even bother to bring such trivial material. Not that there is not a market for these type of postcards, just not at the price that are stated in this book.

The condition of the postcards used to illustrate this book is laughable. Probably 10 percent of the postcards that they used in the book would have been thrown away had they come through my hands. Corners are rounded, corners are missing, creases are prevalent, and in some cases there are major parts of the postcard missing (example page 91)! To place the values that they used on these examples is criminal when they would have been over-priced on the same card in pristine condition.

Then on page 65, they picture a Samuel Schmucker Valentine postcard that (even in that condition) is worth $25 - $35, but they list it as $5 - $6. It just proves that you need not know what you are doing to write a book. It is a shame that such an attractive book is filled with poor examples of holiday greetings when there is an abundance of wonderful ones out there that could have been used.

The truly sad part is that people who are postcard novices will encounter this book and use it to price their cards. They will end up frustrated that their items don't sell when it is clearly listed in the "price guide" that these cards are worth this much. Or worse yet, people who have a modest postcard collection that they would like to sell might use this book to estimate value. They will be extremely disappointed in any offer that a dealer, or even a serious collector, would be willing to pay for their collection if they use this book as a guide. Postcards, like anything else, are worth whatever someone is willing to pay for them. For postcards in the condition of the ones used in this book, they are best relegated to the quarter boxes.

This book has fabulous marble illustrations, but absolutely no cross-referencing so a user can look up the description of the marble pictured. The author pre-supposes you are an expert and know what marble maker and type you are looking for. Illustrations are grouped together in one section of the book and each is identified only by the auction number and lot number it came from. Unfortunately, the descriptions of these marbles are not in the same order. Descriptions are ordered by marble manufacturer and type of marble. Even then, the auction numbers within the types are random. The book is only useful if you know what kind of marble you have and want to see what some similar marbles by the same manufacturer sold for. It bogles the imagination to understand why any sensible editor would not cross index this publication, so a person finding a marble they like in the illustrations, can then go read the description. It could take you a week to find the matching description. The sad thing is, that data was readily available to the author and the illustrations could have been keyed in a day! Worst example of editorship I have ever seen! Totally clueless! They never thought about, or cared, how a person might try to use the book. Save your money! I wish I had!