The Collectors' Encyclopedia of Antiques

London: Bloomsbury Books, 1988. Presumed First Bloomsbury Books Edition, First printing [First published in Great Britain in 1973]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Christopher Evans (Drawings). The format is approximately 8.75 inches by 11.25 inches. 704 pages. Illustrated endpapers. Over 2000 illustrations in full color and black and white (64 pages of color illustrations, approximately 1800 black and white photographs, and some 200 line drawings). General Index. This is a large and heavy book and if sent outside of the United States will require additional shipping charges. The contents address Arms and Armour; Bottles and Boxes; Carpets and Rugs; Ceramics; Clocks, Watches and Barometers; Embroidery and Needlework; Furniture; Glass; Jewellery; Metalwork; Musical Instruments; Netsuke and Inro; Pewter; Scientific Instruments; Silver; Toys and Automata. An antique is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely to describe any object that is old. An antique is usually an item that is collected or desirable because of its age, beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features. It is an object that represents a previous era or time period in human history. Vintage and collectible are used to describe items that are old, but do not meet the 100-year criterion. Antiques are usually objects of the decorative arts that show some degree of craftsmanship, collectability, or an attention to design, such as a desk or an early automobile. They are bought at antiques shops, estate sales, auction houses, online auctions, and other venues, or estate inherited. Antiques dealers often belong to national trade associations, many of which belong to CINOA, a confederation of art and antique associations across 21 countries that represents 5,000 dealers. The common definition of antique is a collectible object such as a piece of furniture or work of art that has an enhanced value because of its considerable age, but it varies depending on the item, its source, the year of its creation, etc. The customary definition of antique requires that an item should be at least 100 years old and in original condition. (Motor vehicles are an exception to this rule, with some definitions requiring an automobile to be as little as 25 years old to qualify as an antique.) In the United States, the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act defined antiques as, "...works of art (except rugs and carpets made after the year 1700), collections in illustration of the progress of the arts, works in bronze, marble, terra cotta, parian, pottery, or porcelain, artistic antiquities and objects of ornamental character or educational value which shall have been produced prior to the year 1830." 1830 was the approximate beginning of mass production in the United States. These definitions were intended to allow people of that time to distinguish between genuine antique pieces, vintage items, and collectible objects. In 1979, the British art critic Edward Lucie-Smith wrote that "Antique-dealers ... sometimes insist that nothing is antique which was made after 1830, although the barrier has been broken down in recent years by the enthusiasm of collectors for Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The alternative term, antiquities, commonly refers to the remains of ancient art and everyday items from antiquity, which themselves are often archaeological artifacts.