When award-winning journalist Dave Jamieson rediscovered his childhood baseball card collection he figured that now was the time to cash in on his "investments." But when he tried the card shops, they were nearly all gone, closed forever. eBay was no help, either. Baseball cards were selling for next to nothing. What had happened? In Mint Condition, the first comprehensive history of this American icon, Jamieson finds the answers and much more. In the years after the Civil War, tobacco companies started slipping baseball cards into cigarette packs as collector's items, launching a massive advertising war. Before long, the cards were wagging the cigarettes. In the 1930s, baseball cards helped gum and candy makers survive the Great Depression, and kept children in touch with the game. After World War II, Topps Chewing Gum Inc. built itself into an American icon, hooking a generation of baby boomers on bubble gum and baseball cards. In the 1960s, royalties from cards helped to transform the players' union into one of the country's most powerful, dramatically altering the business of the game. And in the '80s and '90s, cards went through a spectacular bubble, becoming a billion-dollar-a-year industry before all but disappearing. Brimming with colorful characters, this is a rollicking, century-spanning, and extremely entertaining history.

Paper doll artist Tom Tierney turns his attention to his home state, dishing up a dose of history along with his fashionably accurate dolls. Texas is loaded with women who\ve achieved stardom, including Mary Martin, Ann Sheridan, Jayne Mansfield, Carol Burnett, Renee Zellweger, Salina, and Beyonce Knowles, as well as powerhouse politicoes, including Ima Hogg, "Ma" Ferguson, Ann Richards, and Barbara Jordan. In all, eleven Texas women are represented in full color, each with three carefully researched costumes.

At last, here is the compendium of cigarette packs that collectors have been waiting for! Joe Giesenhagen has compiled a fantastic collection of cigarette packs dating from the 1880s to the present, in all colors, shapes and sizes. See the incredible diversity of character in cigarette packaging over the past century, and the amazing creative effort some companies exerted to make their cigarettes appear exotic, luxurious, colorful, feminine, masculine, festive, or even medicinal. This book includes color photographs of over 4000 packs of cigarettes to accompany in-depth listings of Merchants & Vendors, Factory Numbers, Merchant Code list, up-to-date pricing information, anecdotes of the industry, and much, much, more. Cigarette packs are a great field for collecting, with a huge diversity, availability, and price range. This book is an excellent ground-level entrance for anyone looking to begin a collection and a valuable resource for anyone in the process of building one.

Collecting autographs is a time-honored avocation that has exploded in popularity in recent years, creating a new industry with millions of autographed items for sale online. Coveted signatures include those from presidents of the United States, Civil War officers, World War II heroes, classical music composers and baseball stars. It is estimated that 90 percent of historical autographs on the market today are forgeries. This book provides a definitive guide to signature authentication for experts and beginners alike. Numerous illustrations of genuine and forged signatures are included, from Ty Cobb to Isaac Newton to Abraham Lincoln to Neil Armstrong. Detailed descriptions of common forgeries are given, enabling collectors to make direct comparisons.

The story of the Chesapeake Bay is told through 466 vintage postcards and other ephemera. See the Bay our forefathers knew and recall, days before there were bridges. Travel by steamboat between Baltimore and Norfolk; go to bathing beaches in Maryland, (like Bay Shore Park, Tolchester Beach, and Betterton); then continue south on the Bay and visit Colonial Beach, Buckroe Beach, and Ocean View in Virginia. Ride the ferryboats of yesteryear and cruise to quiet harbors and busy ports. See the Bay's lighthouses, riverboats, old wharfs, and piers; view shipbuilding and commercial fishing as they were. You will surely want to revisit this book again and again.

Follow the history of logging as it unfolds across the United States, from the virgin forests of the east, to the towering redwoods of the West Coast. Historic photography, much of it beautifully hand tinted, captures images of the early woods, the woodsman, and the machines of this important industry. From its earliest days, logging was grueling work done in the isolation of virgin forests. Men worked and lived in rugged environments to provide the basic material with which to build a nation. This book illustrates their lives with over 350 historic postcard images taken from the early 1900s through the first half of the twentieth century. Stroll through stunning pictures of logging's history, from the massive trees and forests, axes, saws, lumber camps, donkey engines, and river floats to the oxen, horses, trains, trucks, and sawmills. See the massive machinery that transformed the lumber industry in the twentieth century.

Showcasing some of the most recognized and dynamic examples of aviation art ever produced, the paintings here appeared on model airplane kit boxes. Generations of hobbyists have enjoyed these colorful and inspiring paintings that graced model packaging in hobby shops. More than 170 of the most memorable examples are displayed in full color. They chronicle aviation history from the Wright Brothers' Kitty Hawk Flier to the Apollo Lunar Module, including many of the best-known aircraft in aviation history. Among the many artists whose works are portrayed are Tom Morgan, John Steel, Jack Leynnwood, Lorenzo Ghiglieri, Jim Cox, John Amendola, Ray Gaedke, Jo Kotula, and Dick Locher. In the well-researched text, these artists tell personal stories behind their art in their own words. This book will be treasured by aviation enthusiasts, model builders, and everyone who has fond memories of their model building days.

Cocktail culture boomed in the United States after Prohibition as America couldn't get enough of the new concoctions developed by barkeepers. Exotic drinking venues defined this era of drinking culture and were immortalised in the linen postcards used to advertise them. Transport yourself to an era of indulgence and glamour with over 50 vintage cocktail recipes (and modern twists), historical vignettes and more than 100 pieces of vintage ephemera.

A century of Alpine postcards from the Isola Press archive, VINTAGE ALPINE POSTCARDS celebrates Europe's great mountain range. These dispatches from the Alps take us from men in bowler hats with stout ropes nonchalantly crawling over crevasses, through the gilded age of grand hotels and sleigh rides, to the modernist concrete infrastructure of mountaintop restaurants and cable-car stations. They frame the changing way we've experienced landscape and leisure over more than a hundred years - from the intrepid to the banal, sublime to ridculous and brutalist to kitsch. But postcards travel through time as well as space, and they arrive with messages from our former selves. Underlying the Alpenkitsch is a serious examination of our relationship to nature and how we have used and abused the beauties of the natural world. And, like sun-burnished memories of holidays past, their sunlit scenes do not necessarily correspond to reality. Postcard makers have always used artifice to conjure fantastic spaces, worlds in which the sky is always blue, the pine trees resplendent and there is always plenty of fresh powder. Featuring great views, architecture, infrastructure Alpinism, hiking and snow sports, VINTAGE ALPINE POSTCARDS is perfect for skiers, hikers, cyclists and mountain lovers. These skaters, skiers, sledgers and St Bernards will surprise and delight mountain aficionados, transporting them to a high altitude holiday wherever they are.

Presidents, Prime Ministers, Chancellors and Secretary Generals of totalitarian states in the twentieth century have been highly conscious of the need to present a national image suited to the new political culture they sought to inculcate. In these regimes, state-sanctioned art performed a key function, giving visual dimension to an abstract political ideology. There is a striking similarity between the idealized images from these countries. This book presents about fifty postcards from the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Spain, and China, between 1920s and the 1970s. While some of the images are of a high aesthetic calibre, others are simply intended to portray a vernacular socialist realism or to cultivate the cult of the leader. Taken together, they provide a fascinating look at the art of power and its expression at a time of political upheaval and experiment.

At the turn of the fifteenth century, private devotionals became a speciality of the renowned Ghent-Bruges illuminators. Wealthy patrons who commissioned work from these artists often spared no expense in the presentation of their personal prayer books, or 'books of hours', from detailed decoration to luxurious bindings and embroidery. This enchanting illuminated manuscript was painted by the Master of the David Scenes in the Grimani Breviary (known as the David Master), one of the renowned Flemish illuminators in the sixteenth century. Every page of the manuscript is exquisitely decorated. Fine architectural interiors, gorgeous landscapes and detailed city scenes, each one depicting a narrative, form the subjects of three full-size illuminations and forty-two full-page miniatures. There are floral borders on a gold ground or historiated borders in the Flemish and Italian style on every page. It is one of the finest examples of medieval illumination in a personal prayer book and the most copiously illustrated work of the David Master to survive. The manuscript owes its name to the French Queen, Marie de Medici, widow of King Henri IV. For a time she went into exile in Brussels, where she is thought to have acquired the manuscript before moving again to Cologne. An inscription in English states that she left the book of hours in this city, and it is here that an English manuscript collector, Francis Douce, may have acquired the book and eventually donated it to the Bodleian Library. Together with a scholarly introduction that gives an overview of Flemish illumination and examines each of the illustrations in detail, this full-colour facsimile limited edition, bound in linen with a leather quarter binding and beautifully presented in a slipcase, faithfully reproduces all 176 leaves of the original manuscript.

Take a delightful journey back in time in this historically rich and visually appealing beach town. Displayed in over 275 precious views of hand-tinted and sepia-toned postcards from the late 1800s through more modern times, Ocean Grove's history comes alive.Travel within its three natural water borders, the Atlantic Ocean, Wesley Lake, and Fletcher Lake to view the Asbury Park boardwalk alive with Victorian-era visitors, the first railroad station, and rare views of the magnificent Auditorium. See its early days of entertainment, including John Phillip Sousa and Peter, Paul, and Mary, as well as the patriotic heritage that rumbled through its streets. Whether looking at beautiful images of the special hotels like the Shawmont or the wide lawns of the Windamar, busy Ocean Grove streets and scenes will enchant you.

Among the many books in original bindings in Marsh's Library, Dublin, a surprisingly large number are in decorated blind- or gold-tooled, calf, pigskin or goatskin bindings, which date from the 15th to the 19th centuries. The bindings come from all over Europe, ranging from Ireland to eastern Europe. While most were made in England, some fine and interesting examples from Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Holland are also included. In this volume, leading scholar Mirjam Foot first gives an overview of how books were bound by hand and then describes the bindings by country of origin, within each section treating them chronologically and by type of decoration. The detailed descriptions of the bindings are illustrated with 52 black and white photos and 8 colour plates.

Explore the gilded age of Las Vegas through 437 vintage postcards that trace the history of the historic "Las Vegas Strip." Tour popular resorts, including The Dunes, Golden Nugget, Flamingo Hotel and Casino, Sands Casino, and Monte Carlo Club. Learn the beginnings of Roulette and slot machines. By the 1950s, Las Vegas began to take shape as America's playground. The city changed dramatically from a dusty resort to the most exciting gambling city in America, and the rapid growth continued throughout the 1960s. These were the "Golden Years" of Las Vegas. Anyone who loves Vegas will enjoy witnessing its development. Postcard collectors worldwide also will find this a valuable resource.

Be transported back to a Golden Era in Miami history. Nearly 250 mid-century postcards portray bikini-clad tourists, tropical cabana nightclubs, and beaches crowded with basking vacationers, along with the private yachts, the fragrant orange groves, and the colorful flamingos, flowers, and neon splendor of the region.\nArchitecture fans, preservationists, and historians will delight in these views of the city and its fabulous hotel resorts developed in the 1920s and \30s. These tourist destinations embodied the Tropical Deco style -- an aesthetic that combined streamlined Art Deco with the exotic elements that were locally inspired. These images also illustrate the re-birth of streamlining in the 1950s, and the creation of the city\s treasured MiMo or Miami Modern style. Many of these treasured architectural landmarks are now lost to further development. \nThe "Miami Magic" that drew the rich and famous then, still caters to droves of Americans and Europeans who flock there by land, sea, and air. Here is a fantastic mini-history of the city and its allure.

The Ormesby Psalter is perhaps the most magnificent yet enigmatic of the great Gothic psalters produced in East Anglia in the first half of the fourteenth century. Its pages boast a wealth of decoration picked out in rich colours and burnished gold, and its margins are inhabited by a vibrant crew of beasts, birds and insects. Fantastic imagery proliferates: musicians, mermaids, lovers and warriors are juxtaposed with scenes from everyday life, from chivalric legend, and from folk-tales, fables and riddles. The psalter takes its name from Robert of Ormesby, subprior at Norwich Cathedral Priory in the 1330s. He was not the first owner, however, and it has long been acknowledged that the writing, decoration and binding of the book took place in a series of distinct phases from the late thirteenth to the mid-fourteenth century. The final result was the work of four or five scribes and up to seven illuminators and its pages show a panorama of stylistic development. Unravelling its complexities has sometimes been thought to hold the key to understanding the 'East Anglian School', a group of large, luxury manuscripts connected with Norwich Cathedral and Norfolk churches and patrons. This book casts an entirely new light on its history, not only clarifying and dating the successive phases of production, but associating the main work on the manuscript with the patronage of John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, one of the greatest magnates of the time. It is extensively illustrated with full-page colour reproductions of the manuscript's main decorated folios, as well as many smaller initials and numerous comparative illustrations.

This catalogue discusses and illustrates a wide variety of Chinese books, dating from the sixth to the nineteenth century - some very rare.

This volume celebrates the work of William O'Sullivan, the first keeper of manuscripts at Trinity College, Dublin, who preserved, made more accessible and elucidated the documents in his care. The manuscripts throw new light on the society of Ireland, the place of the learned and literate in that world, and its relations with Britain, Europe and America. Some of these essays clarify technical problems in the making of famous manuscripts, and bring out for the first time their indebtedness to or influence over other manuscripts. Others provide unexpected new information about the reigns of Edward I and James I, Irish provincial society, the process and progress of religious change and the links between settlements in Ireland and North American colonization.

A collection of articles in English and German devoted to the study of books, readers and libraries in medieval England, especially in the Anglo-Saxon period. The first article surveys the history of the English library from its beginnings to the suppression of the monasteries. It is followed by a more detailed examination of the first four centuries of Anglo-Saxon book collections and by studies on book production in 9th-century England, as seen in relation to King Alfred's plans for educational reform and to the intellectual background of library history in the 10th century. Of two articles on liturgical books, one sets out the now standard classified list of liturgical manuscripts written and owned in Anglo-Saxon England; other essays look at individual manuscripts and the earliest modern catalogue of surviving books with Old English texts.

Exquisite hand-colored photographs taken in Savannah, Georgia, between 1900 and 1930 display the city when horse-drawn carriages traversed her shady streets, and bonneted women hitched their long skirts to cross her wide thoroughfares. These nostalgic historic images are preserved in a lovely souvenir book, or perforated for removal. At 5" x 7" inches, they fit standard frames, ready to proudly display, or to mail to friends.

Following the success of Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Topps released two brand-new sets of collectable trading cards in 1983 to coincide with Return of the Jedi, the final installment of George Lucas's original Star Wars trilogy. Now, for the first time, all 220 cards and 55 stickers are reprinted in one deluxe volume. As with the previous books in the Topps series, this collection features the fronts and backs of each card, including character profiles, story cards, movie facts, quotes, trivia and puzzles featuring all of your favourite scenes from Return of the Jedi. Also included is the Space Paintings subset featuring production illustrations by concept artist Ralph McQuarrie, four bonus trading cards, rare promotional images and an introduction and commentary by Gary Gerani, the original editor of the Star Wars Topps series.

This fascinating and bizarre collection compiles the most unusual, obscure books from the far reaches of the human imagination throughout history.

From the author of the critically acclaimed bestsellers The Phantom Atlas and The Sky Atlas comes a unique and beautifully illustrated journey through the history of literature. The Madman's Library delves into its darkest territories to hunt down the oddest books and manuscripts ever written, uncovering the intriguing stories behind their creation.

From the Qur'an written in the blood of Saddam Hussein, to the gorgeously decorated fifteenth-century lawsuit filed by the Devil against Jesus, to the most enormous book ever created, The Madman's Library features many long forgotten, eccentric, and extraordinary volumes gathered from around the world.

Books written in blood and books that kill, books of the insane and books that hoaxed the globe, books invisible to the naked eye and books so long they could destroy the Universe, books worn into battle and books of code and cypher whose secrets remain undiscovered. Spell books, alchemist scrolls, wearable books, edible books, books to summon demons, books written by ghosts, and more all come together in the most curiously strange library imaginable.

Featuring hundreds of remarkable images and packed with entertaining facts and stories to discover, The Madman's Library is a captivating compendium perfect for bibliophiles, literature enthusiasts, and collectors intrigued by bizarre oddities, obscure history, and the macabre.