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End of September Book Review by
Sam Mitchell.

Title: American Jewelry Manufacturers
Author: Dorothy T. Rainwater
Type of Book: Hard Cover
Average Price: $49.95
In or Out of Print: In Print
Number of Pages: 296
Brief Description of Book
Book is of American Jewelry Manufacturers Marks compiled from old trade
journals and  related directories.


NOTE:   Reviews Based on the following Scoring Measure:
1 Being “Forget It” and 10 Being “Must Have”

QUANTITY OF PICTURES:
    Comments: Lots and Lots of Marks which is what the book is all about
   SCORE: 9

QUALITY OF PICTURES:
    Black and White Pictures?
    Color?
    How good are the pictures?
    Are there close ups of the marks?
    Comments: All black and white
    SCORE: 9

QUANTITY OF INFORMATION:
    Range of information offered? A lot in some cases, nothing in others
    Is information thorough? No
    Comments: More on this later
    SCORE: 5

QUALITY OF INFORMATION:
    Accuracy (are there mistakes?): Yes
    Comments: More on this later
    SCORE: 4

VALUES LISTED:
    Are they helpful or realistic?
    Comments :Book is not about values
    SCORE: 10

USER FRIENDLY:
    Is the book easy to read and follow? No
    Are things easy to find (table of contents/index)? The book does not have a Index!!!!!
    Comments: This is one of the hardest books to follow I have ever seen.
    SCORE: 1
     

TOTAL AVERAGE SCORE..... 6


Is this a must have book?  Yes and No


WARNING... You should use this book as a reference to help Identify a American Jewelry Manufacturer ONLY. You should ignore the dates and look for other sources to verify the marks in the book. Following the dating and marks to closely in this book could get you into trouble.


Overall Comments:
I was looking forward to getting this book several years ago until I got it!
When I first opened the book and looked in the first thought that came to mind was
“Did a 3 year old put this book together?” The book is so badly put together that you
will hate it and find things really hard to find, if you find them at all.

The book says that everything is listed in Alphabetical order.
Example: Lets look up Carl Art. Should be easy Art starts with a “A”, so lets look under “A”.
You won’t find it under the “As”, its on page 57 under the “Cs”

So it looks like everything is listed alphabetically by first name.
Lets look up Harry Iskin. Harry’s first name starts with a “H” so we look under “H”.
Hey its not there! Its on page 129 under the “Is”

For a really frustrating experience, try finding Miriam Haskell!

And for one of the greatest Names in Jewelry, look what’s on page 82 for Eisenberg.
A really disappointing and wrong mention!

In the end it’s still a good place to identify the marks of the older company’s.
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