Books, Books & More Books...

Here at Perfect Pieces, we firmly believe that good reference books are an essential tool for the serious collector or dealer. We certainly couldn't manage without our constantly expanding collection of books.

In the last newsletter, we highlighted how useful pottery marks guides such as Geoffrey Godden's Encyclopaedia of British Pottery and Porcelain Marks can be. This time, I'd like to highlight two different types of book - each of which has its place and can be very useful.

General Antiques & Collectables Guides

If you are looking for an overview of a particular type of collecting (e.g. Art Deco ceramics) or a general antiques and collectables reference book, these might be the answer. Some of the best-known examples of these are the Millers Guides, which cover almost every collecting area.

One new book that has just hit the shelves in this market is the Collectables Manual . Written by collectables expert Jamie Breese (as seen on GMTV, This Morning, Everything Must Go and weekly in the Sunday Mirror). The Collectables Manual is published by Haynes in a fresh and accessible format that is ideal if you just want to dip in to learn the basics about a range of different collectables.

In fact, we've even managed to get ourselves into the Collectables Manual! In the Troika section, you'll find one of our pictures - an early St Ives period Troika Chimney vase.


Early Black Glazed Troika St Ives Chimney Vase With Trident Mark

Specialist Guides

General guides are very useful, but once you begin to specialise in a particular area of collecting you will soon find that you need something more.

When it comes to pottery, this usually means a more detailed book looking at the work of one specific pottery only. Good examples include Poole Pottery, by Hayward & Atterbury and Moorcroft, by Paul Atterbury .

This type of book is usually large, hardback and filled with colour photographs and wonderful amounts of detail about the pottery's wares, including pattern sheets, shape numbers, artists' markings and detailed backstamp references.

Can't I Find This Information Online?

It's all too easy to start using the internet as your only source of reference material - but if you do, you'll be missing out. The cost and research required to produce this type of book means that it isn't economical to make the same information freely available online.

If you aren't sure about buying a particular book, it might be worth trying your local library. These venerable institutions often have a surprising range of antique-related books available - all free!

Kind regards,

Perfect Pieces

Newsletters

Here you'll find a list of our past newsletters. They feature information on different potteries, some of our featured stock and information on antique fairs and general news from the antique and collectors world!

Happy reading!