"Let There Be Light." Borrowing from the bible, the Eveready Co. used this phrase on the cover of its 1899 catalog, along with a hand from the heavens pointing a flashlight at the earth. Those were the beginning years of the flashlight, originally promoted to help sell batteries and growing to become an essential safety product in every American household and automobile. Never before has there been an extensive treatment of the flashlight from an historical and collectible point of view. In this beautifully illustrated full color volume, Stuart Schneider brings a fascinating world to "light."...

Collecting Picture and Photo Frames introduces the reader to the history of frames and an across-the-board sampling of framing styles from the early 1800s through the 1940s. Beautifully illustrated in over 400 color photographs, this book is the first of its kind to show such variety and magnitude of both wall frames and table top frames in detail and full color. Whether you are an amateur or novice collector of frames, someone who simply appreciates good frames for your pictures, or a student of art and design history, this book will give you insight into the style, beauty, and value of...

The Book of Fountain Pens and Pencils illustrates and describes over 700 never before illustrated pens and pencils. This companion book to Fountain Pens and Pencils: The Golden Age of Writing Instruments will excite collectors and dealers, while expanding their knowledge of this rapidly growing field of collectibles. In addition, sections of this book deal with pen company advertising, pen repair, decoration, and valuation. Hundreds of manufacturers are represented in full color, life-sized photographs. A value guide is included.

The desire to travel into space is as old as mankind itself. But it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the idea became anything more than fiction. Although hot air balloons large enough to carry a person lifted off the ground in the late 1700s, it was the invention of powered flight-the airplane-that gave man hope of controlling his ascent into the skies and beyond. Once man was headed up, he could never again be satisfied being tied down to the earth's surface. The space age gave man hopes and dreams of a future in the exploration of the universe. These dreams were...

Cigarette lighter collecting has quickly become a very popular hobby throughout the world. Here, at last, is accessible information for the collector. Over 500 lighters are illustrated in full color. They are shown in alphabetical order of their makers and by date within each company. The available historical data is presented clearly and concisely. The lighters are unusual and interesting. They include examples from well-known companies like Dunhill, Ronson, and Zippo as well as companies whose names are lost in smoke. The reader receives an "across the board" look at what is available today...

This book is for all people using, owning, or collecting fountain pens and their matching pencils. It introduces the beginning pen collector to the hobby and answers questions asked by advanced pen collectors about the earliest and rarest pens. With over 1,000 fountain pens illustrated in full color, it will identify pens and provide the opportunity to examine many rare pens that were produced.
The examples represent the whole range of the history and production of fountain pens, from the earliest to the present, and from the most common to the rarest.
L.E. Waterman, Parker, Swan, Sheaffer,...

Travel to ancient cemeteries of the U.S. and France to meet night spirits. Captured digitally at sundown, sun up, and by the light of the full moon, their beauty and eeriness is astounding. Shown are full vaporous apparitions with ghost stories connected with each of the featured cemeteries helping to explain who the ghosts are and why they appear hundreds of years after they were buried. You will be drawn into each photograph as though you were standing there - seeing what the photographer saw and was feeling when the photograph was taken. Thousands of ghost hunters go out looking for...

Next to Christmas, more money is spent on Halloween decorations and novelties than on any other holiday. This wonderful book has been credited with inspiring the Halloween collecting craze, giving its devotees a chance to celebrate the holiday all year round In addition to color photography and a brand new price guide, there are also many fascinating insights into Halloween. Most people are familiar with the symbols--ghosts, Jack-O'-Lanterns, witches, bats, skeletons, and black cats--but few know about Halloween's past. Why does it exist? What is the origin of trick-or-treating? Why does it...

Seeing fluorescent minerals up close for the first time is an exciting experience. The colors are so pure and the glow is so seemingly unnatural, that it is hard to believe they are natural rocks. Hundreds of glowing minerals are shown, including Aragonite, Celestine, Feldspar, Microcline, Picropharmacolite, Quartz, Spinel, Smithsonite, plus many more. But don't let the hard-to-pronounce names keep you away. Over 870 beautiful color photographs illustrate how fluorescent minerals look under UV light and in daylight, making this an invaluable field guide. Here are minerals from the United...

Extraordinary cigarette lighters can be found in the strangest of places--in a garage sale, at a swap meet, perhaps even in your own basement. This convenient, revised and updated handheld guide introduces a history of lighters through a comprehensive, alphabetical presentation of styles, organized according to company name and dating from the late 1800s through the 1980s.Well-known makers such as Dunhill, Ronson, Evans, Scripto, and Zippo are included, as well as unusual lighters from lesser known companies. Never before has a book shown such variety of lighters with this much detail and...