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End February Book Review by
Adrienne Shivers

Title: Antique Enameled Jewelry
Author: Dale Reeves Nicholls with Robin Allison


General description: Book focuses strictly on enameled jewelry from Victorian through more contemporary designs. There are examples of each era, different makers, different designs and different techniques, along with a valuation section for each chapter.

This review will cover several categories and will include a rating for that category 1-10, 1 being 'forget it, 10 being 'must have'. There will also be a short comment about each category and then a general review at the end.

QUANTITY of PICTURES:
Comments: A lot of pictures, all color, very few backs, practically no marks.
Rating: 8

QUALITY of PICTURES:
Comments: Great shots, color is superb. Some could be bigger.
Rating: 9

QUANTITY of INFORMATION
Comments: This book covers a LOT. Divided into to chapters covering history of enamel, periods, styles, symbols, florals, makers and collecting. In depth info in all and a great way to learn about what types of enamel where popular when, and how to differentiate between style.
Rating: 9

QUALITY of INFORMATION
Comments: I haven't seen any errors so far. Very thorough and looks to be pretty darn accurate. It does not cover 1930's and 1940's cold enamel work, however, or at least not much. That's a big ommission, from my point of view.
Rating: 6

VALUES LISTED:
Comments: Values are up there, but this book shows some very fine and unique enamels that you do not see everywhere, if anywhere. Values are not out of the question. Except the Art Deco bubble necklaces, those are values too cheap, they've been going very high on ebay lately and I've seen retail as high as $800-1000. Book has them at $275-300. But, that's one of those things...they're hot at the moment, then they'll probably cool off.
Rating: 7

USER FRIENDLY
Comments: Very fairly easy to follow, except for the value sections. Each chapter has it's own value section and they're tough to follow, filled with abbreviations, which are in the front, but you have to keep flipping around between the item page, the abbreviations and the values.
Rating: 8



Total average rating: 8.33

Great book and like all books that specialize in a specific area and really covers it in depth, like Cathy and Sheila's Haskell or Ginger's Eurorpean or the Charms book, it's a must have. If you don't already like enamels, you will after reading this book. If you already like enamels, you will really love this one, especially if you like the older pre-1930's pieces.  I really appreciate authors that tackle subjects not covered as well in other more general topic books. The trend in books does seem to be towards these more specialized topics, probably because the general works have been done ad nauseum.
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