Get the inside scoop on every aspect of antiquing - buying, cleaning, repairing, embellishing, refinishing, restoring, and selling. You'll find expert advice for getting great deals at auctions, flea markets, and shops, and you'll learn how to spot items that can be repaired to increase their value. Advice for selling antiques at flea markets, on consignment, and in shops is included.
Winner of the 2014 John Collier Jr. Award Winner of the Jo Anne Stolaroff Cotsen Prize Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century cross-cuts the ranks of important books on social history, consumerism, contemporary culture, the meaning of material culture, domestic architecture, and household ethnoarchaeology. It is a distant cousin of Material World and Hungry Planet in content and style, but represents a blend of rigorous science and photography that these books can claim. Using archaeological approaches to human material culture, this volume offers unprecedented access to the middle-class American home through the kaleidoscopic lens of no-limits photography and many kinds of never-before acquired data about how people actually live their lives at home. Based on a rigorous, nine-year project at UCLA, this book has appeal not only to scientists but also to all people who share intense curiosity about what goes on at home in their neighborhoods. Many who read the book will see their own lives mirrored in these pages and can reflect on how other people cope with their mountains of possessions and other daily challenges. Readers abroad will be equally fascinated by the contrasts between their own kinds of materialism and the typical American experience. The book will interest a range of designers, builders, and architects as well as scholars and students who research various facets of U.S. and global consumerism, cultural history, and economic history.
Entertaining at home in gracious French style. Born from her experience of everyday living in France, Sharon Santoni reveals the gracious, easy French way of entertaining guests at her countryside home, year-round. Personal stories evoke the spirit of the French lifestyle, while gorgeous photos make us feel right at home. Santoni creates lush bouquets from her garden and utilizes resources from surrounding nature to lay gorgeous tables both indoors and outdoors. Venues range from a Sunday morning breakfast on the patio, to a ladies lunch in her lush garden, a formal dinner in her dining room, and a picnic by the river. Santoni also shares 15 favorite recipes utilizing seasonal foods. Find inspiration for your tables throughout the seasons, and discover the simple pleasure of entertaining friends and family. Sharon Santoni writes the popular blog My French Country Home. She is the author of My Stylish French Girlfriends (Gibbs Smith). She resides in Normandy, France.
The real estate boom has come and gone. The stock market is always a risky business. Today the smart money is in antiques and collectibles: you don't need much to get started, and the market for everything from furniture to folk art, from bottles to baseball cards, is just beginning to explode! Bruce Johnson, the expert called the "Dear Abby" of antiques, shows how you can turn today's bargains and discounts into tomorrow's hot money-making deals. Here are hundreds of inside tips that show you how to: -- Get in on the bottom floor before prices begin to go through the roof -- Enter the business without a formal education or a sizable investment -- Expand your operation and increase your income without taking time away from your present job -- Find the best sales, the best days to attend, and the best deals -- Negotiate bargains with dealers -- and beat them at their own game -- Create print ads for your wares that will pull in customers eager to buy -- Sell your treasures at a profit from your home, or at flea markets, yard and garage sales, auctions, and antique malls Plus: More than thirty antiques-related services you can run from your home, including caning, appraising, and refinishing.
The Ogilvy advertising director and author of A Very Modest Cottage describes how during the renovation of a derelict campground she found and restored 151 discarded items that became foundation pieces, in an account that explains her strategies for recognizing and displaying worthwhile items.
Crap. We all have it. Filling drawers. Overflowing bins and baskets. Proudly displayed or stuffed in boxes in basements and garages. Big and small. Metal, fabric, and a whole lot of plastic. So much crap. Abundant cheap stuff is about as American as it gets. And it turns out these seemingly unimportant consumer goods offer unique insights into ourselves—our values and our desires. In Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America, Wendy A. Woloson takes seriously the history of objects that are often cynically-made and easy to dismiss: things not made to last; things we don't really need; things we often don't even really want. Woloson does not mock these ordinary, everyday possessions but seeks to understand them as a way to understand aspects of ourselves, socially, culturally, and economically: Why do we—as individuals and as a culture—possess these things? Where do they come from? Why do we want them? And what is the true cost of owning them? Woloson tells the history of crap from the late eighteenth century up through today, exploring its many categories: gadgets, knickknacks, novelty goods, mass-produced collectibles, giftware, variety store merchandise. As Woloson shows, not all crap is crappy in the same way—bric-a-brac is crappy in a different way from, say, advertising giveaways, which are differently crappy from commemorative plates. Taking on the full brilliant and depressing array of crappy material goods, the book explores the overlooked corners of the American market and mindset, revealing the complexity of our relationship with commodity culture over time. By studying crap rather than finely made material objects, Woloson shows us a new way to truly understand ourselves, our national character, and our collective psyche. For all its problems, and despite its disposability, our crap is us.
Sharply designed, jam-packed with illustrations, and written with a touch of irony, this book celebrates such novelty items as joy buzzers, the whoopee cushion, and fake worms.
Out of the authors' latest explorations, this gorgeous new book has come to life---illustrating entirely different talking machines from those in their previous books. Follow the progress of the acoustic talking machine from its crude beginnings in the 1870s to its most splendid and sophisticated heights in the early 20th century. An unparalleled archive of rare, fascinating, and previously undocumented objects has been assembled. The story behind the beautiful, bright machinery is told through clear and insightful descriptions, and many previously unpublished facts are revealed.
Today's consumers aren't cheap . . . but we all know the importance of a bargain -- and the thrill of the hunt for getting quality at a good price. Whether a reader is planning a trip, moving to a new area, or looking to find bargains in his or her hometown, Mr. Cheap's RM provides the indispensable lowdown from an insider's point of view. Researched and meticulously documented by unstoppable bargain hunters, these books provide reliable information not available anywhere else. Atlanta is simply the shopping mecca of the southeast, and tourists, natives, and newcomers alike know that a day spent in Atlanta without getting stuff is a day wasted. Thankfully, Mr. Cheap's RM is around to steer shoppers and tourists to high-quality, affordable purchases, restaurants, and hotels. From neighborhood shops to outlet centers, from cheap bites to fancy dinners, from free activities to high quality lodging for a low price, Mr. Cheap's RM Atlanta offers all the information required to find it and get it.
