The Collector's Encyclopedia of Buttons (Schiffer Book for Collectors)

This book give descriptions of all types of buttons along with a short history of each type, and it gives current price values to a large variety of buttons! My wife and I had recently found some ornate and many shell buttons in a nineteenth century ghost town and even though there aren't any photographs of the actual buttons we found, we were able to find more on the history of each button, as well as an approximate value of each one. This book is full of mostly black and white photographs of buttons, with a few in color, and has been helpful to us beginner collectors, and I believe it would also be very helpful to people who have been collecting for years! I highly recommend this book to both experienced and beginner collectors alike!

Gift for my son

I am so impressed with this book, anyone that is collecting or studying buttons will love this book. I study it as I sort through my Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers buttons, trying to make lovely items for my Grandchildren and Daughters, I give a history with each item of the button or buttons that are on the garmet. This books gives me so much additional information for the family to carry on from generation to generation.

A good book with lots of pictures but unfortunately most are in black and white. Still, a decent book with good information. Prices are out of date of course because they are from 2006.

The book has a lot of information I had never found just searching online. The only disappointment was having no color

I really was so excited to finally be getting a encyclopedia that I could reference buttons with. I'm 58 years old and have been collecting buttons since I was 10 my grandmother got me interested and that's how I started collecting. So when I decided to order the book I must have miss read but I thought it had colored pictures of all buttons. My problem with the book is no color pictures and there was absolutely no way to make out detail with so many buttons together and so small. Most of the buttons are buttons that the average person will never see or own. What happened to showing a little of everything like a encyclopedia is supposed to ???My final comment dissapointed is an understatment. This is no encyclopedia it doesnt even illustrate in color. Don't spend almost $30 on this you'll be throwing money away. Would I buy from anymore books that this author wrote NO!!!!!!!!

Excellent reference. Just wish the pictures were in color or a little larger.

This book is nice to look for pictures and information if you are interested in buttons . I am very happy with my purchase of the book. I would recomend it for a reference book on buttons.

Sally Luscomb's Encylopaedia of Buttons, originally published in the mid-1960s, has become a book of pros and cons. Firstly, don't be influenced by famous Schiffer name. This book is very much not in the current style of Schiffer books for collectors. In fact, if you look at the publisher's own website, or even the front cover, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the much cited 3000 illustrations will be in colour. They aren't: this is a book of black & white photographs & drawings, with a very few colour plates. The print quality of many of the photos is relatively poor, the resolution low & contrast inadequate by the standards of to-day.What you do get is a reference book in A to Z format, with an enormous range of definitions and descriptions relevant to the button world. Styles, origins, backs, marks, manufacturers, designers, materials: just about everything is covered. The written definitions and descriptions are excellent. A little research with this publication will leave you able to give your buttons the terminology they deserve. Shanks, for example, are described in detail, not just by construction method but also the periods in which they were used.The best illustrated and described sections of the encyclopaedia concern the up-market, antique, buttons. The collectables, in their present sense, have little coverage. This, then, although a comprehensive reference work, is not a book that will be very helpful if you want to find out more about the everyday buttons of yesteryear, be they 19th or 20th century.

I thought it would have colored photos. There was about 6 photos in the book that were colored the rest black and white and blurry. Sent book back it was damaged in shipping.

Everything!!

All excellent