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Review by Manon Kavesky

Title: The Napier Co. Defining 20th Century American Costume Jewelry

Author: Melinda L. Lewis with Henry Swen

Type of Book: Hard Cover

Average Price:  $139.00

In Print: Yes

Pages: 1011 pages long



Brief Description of Book:

This is the definitive history of the Napier Company a solid and stylish American costume jewelry producer. The Napier Co. is generally arranged in decade long segments from the early days when Napier was the E.A. Bliss company in the mid 1870’s to the present day.

Every page boasts beautiful large color photos of jewelry pieces as well as descriptive captions and prices. These are professional quality images showing the true beauty of these pieces. For collectors specifically there are photos of the reverse sides of some pieces as well as findings and fasteners.

There are wonderful photos of very popular Napier designs including their coveted charm bracelets. At the end there is a large section of photos showing a wide variety of Napier hallmarks marks. It seems if most if not all their jewelry was hallmarked so the marks help in the dating of the pieces. At times the styles are so timeless they could have been made almost anytime in the history of the company.  Napier also produced sidelines such as bar ware and these pieces are also included.

This is a text heavy book according to the author there are 250,000 words and I do not doubt her counting skills. Lots of archival material is also presented to fill out the story of the Napier Co. This book is so big that I think it would be best to devour it in small sections depending on your mood or particular jewelry research project.

Personally I feel that this monograph will raise the profile and collectability of Napier.  This book is a scholarly treatment; a labor of love and you should help support the author by buying The Napier Co. Melinda even seems to have an installment plan to make it easier to pay for.

I firmly believe that this book sets the gold standard which jewelry collector’s books should be measured by. Good photos, lots of intelligent text about the pieces of jewelry as well as interesting history of the company and the times.

Quantity of Illustrations: 4000

Score:  10

Quality of visual material: superb

B/w: Yes    

Color Photos: Yes

Score: 10

Quantity of Information: TONS

Is the information thorough? Yes

Comments: this is an encyclopedia

Score: 10

Quality of Information: 10

Accuracy (Mistakes?) None that I could find

Comments:

Score 10

Values Listed (Prices) Yes

Comments: Not my favorite thing in a collectors book because it quickly dates the book making it seem obsolete. I think that pricing should be part of the multi media add ons that the author has provided. Then the pricing information could be kept updated at reasonable intervals. I know some people love price guidelines in a book but not me.

Score 10

User Friendly:

Is the book easy to read and follow? Yes easy to read and follow

Is there a table of contents? Yes

Is information easy to find? Yes

Score: 10



Average score: a perfect 10



Is this book a must have? Yes
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