Among the virtues and vices that make up the British character, we have one vice, at least, that Americans ought to view with sympathy. For they appear to be the only people who share it with us. I mean our worship of the antique. I do not refer to beauty or even historical association. I refer to age, to a quantity of years.
William G. Golding

A Complete Guide to Collecting Antique Pipes
Benjamin Rapaport
Schiffer 1st 1979

A Complete Guide to Collecting Antique Pipes is an illustrated guide and an historical account of the evolution and development of yesterday's pipe. It traces pipe styles, substances and genres, the craft and the craftsmen. Antique pipes of meerschaum, porcelain, clay, assorted woods and other substances were the expressions of people who created them for visual as well as nicotine pleasures. Some pipes were exotic and exquisite works of art, others were whimsical and fanciful. These and hundreds of others are illustrated in this book along with specimen pages of old catalogues and lithographs of pipes. Interlaced throughout, the reader will find occasional and amusing anecdotes about selected pipes, the noted carvers and heretofore little known information about this cottage industry.
Many of the pipes illustrated in this book have never been seen before. Some come from museums, many from private collectors. A Complete Guide to Collecting Antique Pipes is light and literate reading—there is evidence of extensive research and collaboration. The result of all this is a colorful, informative and educational tool for the collector, mature or would-be, the researcher, the tobacco historian, the ethnologist or anyone who loves art in any form for Ben Rapaport has convincingly proved that the antique pipe is high art.

4to. Minor bumps to the boards, wear to the dustwrapper, otherwise the book is in VG+ in a VG+ wrapper.
Standard reference work on the subject. 870 gms £25.00

Watch and Clock Making and Repairing
W J Gazeley
Heywood 2nd edn

This authoritative work was based on the lifetime's experience of the author, who was very well known as a craftsman of the highest order as well as being a lecturer at the Northampton College of Advanced Technology and horological consultant to Watchmaker, Jeweller & Silversmith. A particularly valuable feature is the inclusion of constructional details of tools specially designed by the author.
Subjects covered include: Tools and Equipment; Materials; Watch Movements, Clock Movements; Filing and Making Drills, Taps and Screws, and Methods of Polishing; Turning; Gearing and Making Wheels and Pinions; Watch Escapements; Clock Escapements; Keyless Work, Self-Winding Mechanisms and Motion Work; Balances and Balance-Springs; Pendulums; Striking Mechanisms, Repeaters, Clock-Watches, Musical and Alarm Watches; Chronographs and Stop Watches, Calendar Watches and Clocks; Chronometers,Tourbillons and Karrusels; Cleaning Clocks and Watches, and Practical Hints; Appendix: Causes of Failure and Bad Timekeeping in Watches and Clocks; Index.

Some Press opinions of the first edition:
'... this recent addition to horological literature is a particularly useful one, for, in addition to being remarkably comprehensive, it is both clearly written and well illustrated.'
The Engineer
'It is eminently suitable both for the student and for the practising watch repairer and is so compiled with headed paragraphs and a good index that reference to any particular operation in watch and clock work is easy. It is a book I am sure any watch and clock maker will profit from and will enjoy reading. Certainly he will want to keep it on his shelves for reference.'
Watchmaker, Jeweller & Silversmith
`'Lavishly illustrated by over 300 line drawings, Watch and Clock Making and Repairing is a handbook that should be close to every conscientious watchmaker's bench.'
Commonwealth Jeweller & Watchmaker

8vo. Title page missing, otherwise VG++ in a VG++ wrapper. 655 gms £20.00

Dorking Kindersley Collector's Guides - Arts & Crafts
Judith Miller
Dorling Kindersley 1st 2003

The essential, full-colour collector's guide to Arts and Crafts style

Arts and Crafts was oneof the most influential design movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rejecting mass production in favour of individualism, simplicity, honest craftsmanship and sound design, its exponents created stunning works that laid the foundation for modern design.

Written by Judith Miller and specialist consultants, this guide tells the fascinating story of the movement - from the inspiration of William Morris to the interpretation of his ideals worldwide - and provides a stunning visual reference for collectors. Over 1,000 items are presented in full colour, with up-to-date price guides and tips for buying, selling and collecting. Subject areas include furniture, textiles, ceramics, jewellery, silver, glass, and books and posters, with profiles of key designers and workshops including Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Liberty & Co., the Cotswold School, George Ohr, Tiffany Studios, William de Morgan, the Guild of Handicraft and the Glasgow School.

Combining historical information, price guides and useful tips, this is the must-have sourcebook for anyone with an interest in Arts and Crafts style.

4to. Glazed pictorial boards in a similar dustwrapper; very, very slight creasing and tiny partial puncture to dustwrapper, otherwise the book is in Mint condition in a VG++ wrapper. 1260 gms £12.50

English Pottery and Porcelain Figures
G Bernard Hughes
Lutterworth Press 1st 1964

Ceramic figures have been admired copied, faked and, above all, treasured to an extent unknown among any other class of collectable antique. In England they range from the exquisite soft porcelain flute-plaver of Chelsea to cats in the streaked clays known as agate ware; from classic heroes in black basaltes to the veiled bride in the marble manner of statuary parian.
In this book the author shares his own delight in the range and variety of these gay ornaments, and offers the beginner collector the plain facts that must guide any quest for such treasure. Here are essential details of paste and colour and glaze, simply presented as the would-be collector must view them, but offered with a knowledge that comes from years of close acquaintance and practical research.
From the author's studies and his quotations from contemporaneous descriptions and lists of figures, the reader can identify his possessions, and also appreciate what to seek, for here is a subject that still offers many opportunities to the knowledgeable. Whether the reader's interest lies among Victorian earthenware, flat backs or Worcester ivory porcelain, Derby biscuit or Winton majolica, this book offers a sound introduction to make the search enjoyable and its outcome a lasting pleasure.

With four-colour frontispiece and 48 black and white plates

8vo. Gold titling to spine; very, very slight wear to head + tail of spine, wear, chips, small tears + some tiny areas missing from dustwrapper, otherwise VG++ in a VG+ wrapper. 620 gms £12.00

Shire Album 104 - Carnival Glass
Raymond Notley
Shire Publications 2nd edn, 1986


Hand-pressed glass with an added lustrous metallic iridescence was a great success when first marketed in the USA in 1908. It was equally popular in Britain from 1909 and by 1911 had spread throughout the British Empire. Its exotic patterns, variety of shapes and dazzling iridescence delighted purchasers up to the early 1930s. Carnival glass was used only for a very brief period as a prize at funfairs and so the name is ill deserved. The surface lustre of prime examples of this glass is remarkably similar to that of Tiffany and Carder, but the art glass trade denounced it vehemently and most glass authors and experts dismissed it as 'cheap rubbish'. But Carnival glass is now emerging from the obscurity of scorn that has surrounded it for over fifty years. This book gives a brief history of the glass and guides the reader through the confusion of misinformation and muddle about the subject.
Ray Notley is the accepted European authority on the subject of this book and has visited glassworks, operated a hand press, studied and researched in museums and libraries and visited private collections in Europe and the United States. Carnival glass clubs in the United States and Australia regularly publish his authoritative articles. He is a research contributor to The Glass Cone magazine and edits the Journal of the Carnival Glass Society. He is also the author of the Shire Album Pressed Flint Glass. He is joint owner of the Notley-Lerpiniere glass collection, which is now on permanent loan to the Broadfield House Glass Museum, Dudley.

8vo. Stapled softback, 32 pages; very, very minor crease to the front cover, otherwise the book is in VG++ condition. 75 gms