Antique Dealers

Review by :

I bought an antique camel-back trunk that needed lots of restoring and didn't know how to start. My friend recommended this book, and I am so glad I bought it. Not only did it give step by step on restoring a trunk but it also had a refrence page on suppliers for trunk parts. I highly recommended this book to anyone who needs to repair trunks, lamps, pottery and frames. The furniture repair section was sort of brief; I would have like to see more on this topic.

Review by :

This is the most helpful book I've read that in very succinct style tells how to buy, fix up, and possibly resell antiques and other second hand stuff. If you love "shabby chic", but can't afford the prices, this book will make it easier to achieve that look. This book is not for people who worry about getting their hands dirty.

Review by Blue:

A great guide for the inveterate browser. Think something between the upscale Louvres des Antiquaires and the junkiest Parisian flea markets and you'll get the sense of what this well-researched and very nicely illustrated shopping guide is focusing on. Author Edith Pauly is into stuff that is antique or vintage or maybe new or newish, but always cool, funky, decorative, useful and/or off-beat. It all looks pretty interesting as laid out in this 238 page, six inch square book. Not small (what reviewer thought that?), but portable if you're on an all day shopping crawl.

Store/market names and addresses are provided along with hours, websites and Metro stops. Index provided at the back of the book. The only thing missing is price range, but you can assume that most of the stores listed are relatively downscale compared to the afore-mentioned Louvres des Antiquaires and old-line Left Bank antique shops. Just about every neighborhood in Paris is represented in these listings. "The Best Vintage..." was published in 2008, so it would be a good idea to check out the websites given to be sure that stores are still in business before making the trip there.

Review by Jan Berry:

This book is small in size but big on information.

For anyone travelling to Paris this book is a must and even if not

fortunate enough to be travelling this book is a great read.

Review by Linda Feuer:

I really enjoyed reading this book. As an antique dealer, it was fun and interesting to read.

Review by Armchair Interviews:

Second in this new series by authors Max Allan and Barbara Collins, this funny and informative cozy mystery has many surprises in store for you. Not only are there Trash `n' Treasure tips at the end of each chapter, a few recipes are also thrown in!

Max and Barbara have created some fantastic characters in Brandy and Vivian Borne. Brandy has returned home to a small Midwestern town on the Mississippi to live with her mother after a messy divorce. She has custody of the old blind Shih Tzu, Sushi, while her husband has custody of ten-year-old Jake back in Chicago.

Vivian has been a fixture at the Community Theatre Playhouse, and is dismayed when her archrival Bernice, a recent arrival in town, gets the position of Director. Vivian quits the theatre and Brandy comes up with an idea to keep her mother busy and out of her hair: she gets a booth at the new antiques mall in town.

They travel to a federal auction of confiscated goods, buy enough to fill the booth, and pick up Jake for a short visit. Shortly after they set up their booth early one morning, they discover the owner of the mall, Mrs. Norton, on the floor, covered in blood with her timid pit bull standing over her! Was she mauled by her dog?

And, who has been following Brandy? Why is the man from the federal antiques auction after the rolltop desk Brandy bought? Did he follow her to Serenity and try and track it down? Who is the young man Brandy sees arguing with Bernice? Son Jake comes to visit and helps out at the Antiques Mall, and finds a secret compartment in the wooden cigar store Indian. He claims all that was in there was the cigar.

The authors have a unique voice and a quirky conversational style. This amusing trek through the world of antiques will keep you giggling. My favorite chapter was when Vivian takes over and does some sleuthing on her own.

Armchair Interviews says: Treasures exist throughout this book.

Review by B. ledieff:

Another in the wonderful series of cozy mysteries- I, for one, am tired of foresnic overkill and enjoy the cerebral aspect of mysteries (hence, "Cozy") I collect series and this is a welcome addition to my collection

Review by homescho@nelson.tds.net:

Sara Pitzer and Don Cline map out an easy-to-follow trail of tips, etiquette, and guidelines for beginning antique enthusiasts. Even those not planning to become antique dealers will benefit from the sound advice in this book.The chapter on auctions was an eye-opening book in itself. I only wish I had read this book before I found myself at my first auction, the dreaded estate auction. As I read this book, I cringed at the novice mistakes and blunders I made at that first auction. Ms. Pitzer and Mr. Cline are kind enough to let the reader in on some of the blunders and mistakes Don and other experts have made in the past. They point out how you can learn from their mistakes. Thank you Sara and Don, you have taught me I can inch my way into the business. Your advice is sound, and the mistakes were reassuring. With your book, I now feel ready to face the auctions again!

Review by Suzanne P. Thomas:

This book is excellently written with many enlightening stories to illustrate the authors' points about buying, selling, negotiating and more.
As someone who is toying with the idea of opening a booth in an antiques mall, I appreciated reading about the other selling options available such as holding antiques yard sales, picking for other dealers, or attending flea sales.
Although this book is not very long, it is the most helpful title I've found and is well worth its price. The authors concentrate on what the reader really needs to know: how to get started without getting in over one's head, how to buy and where (with the inside scoop on auctions and estate sales - fascinating!), how to sell most items at a profit and get rid of the mistakes, dealer discounts and possible sidelines to earn extra income.

Review by Ruth Keeper:

Antique and Flea Markets of London and Paris is a book serious shoppers will love. While spending several summer months in London, I have visited a number of the markets described. The authors are right on target, and the photos are enjoyable. I learned about many features I've missed, and read about several new places to try on the next trip. The book realizes that shoppers are people, not machines, and tells a little about the market's surrounding area, especially places to stop for a snack and a rest. I'm not as familiar with Paris, but if the Paris section is even close to being as accurate and useful as the London section, it will save shopping time and hassle across the channel, as it will in London.This is not "the" book for your trip if you need a complete guide book. If you like antiques and markets, however, you will love this book.

Review by Andrei Sizov:

This book met a lot of my expectations by being very portable, very well-illustrated, and full of good descriptions of the merchandise one is likely to find in London and Paris flea markets. "Antiquing" is a very visual experience for me, and having plenty of photographs to whet my appetite for the various shops was a real plus. The book was useful too in helping me plot which days to attend which markets. Even if the merchandise changes and vendors sometimes move, there is enough general information that stays constant for this to be a useful guide for several years. The two-for-one format--London and Paris in one book--is also fun. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because the maps could have been better. Otherwise, a great resource!

Review by Craig Clarke:

Following her divorce, Brandy Borne moved back in with her mother, Vivian, in her hometown of Serenity. Much to her chagrin, the first thing they did together was attend a mother-daughter meeting of the local Red Hat Club. (Mystery readers all, the local branch has been named The Red-Hatted League.) Vivian couldn't go with Brandy's much-older sister Peggy Sue (they were both named after popular songs of their day) because Peggy Sue was already a member.

Before her arrival, Peg informed Brandy that Vivian sold off most of her prized possessions to an antique dealer while on a "drug holiday" from her bipolar meds. When the antique dealer was found dead -- and both Brandy and Vivian admitted to running over the body in their car -- it was up to the Borne girls to sift through the other suspects (the dealer was known for taking advantage of citizens) and find the real killer. This story was told in the first "Trash 'n' Treasures" book, Antiques Roadkill.

Since then, they've become amateur sleuths of a sort, investigating murders in their formerly quiet little Midwestern hometown and generally causing havoc of one sort or another while getting in the way of genuine police investigation. The second book in the series, Antiques Maul, is Halloween-themed. It concerns Brandy's trying to keep Vivian out of trouble by opening a booth at the local antiques mall, then finding a woman dead, presumably by her pit bull.

The third book in the series is Antiques Flee Market. Now it's Christmastime, and a former "conquest" of Vivian's (a "mercy mission" during wartime) has been found dead in his nursing-home bed.

Along for the search this time is the victim's British, Goth granddaughter, Chaz, an ex-con with less than savory friends and a delightfully Cockney way of speaking. Meanwhile, Brandy is troubled by an anonymous note that suggests Vivian is not her real mother, and Vivian is excited by news that she is no longer bipolar but merely schizo-affective (which is actually bipolar with psychotic tendencies).

Antiques Flee Market shows a marked improvement over the first book in the series, which I was actually unable to finish (I skipped the followup). The prose here is smoother, with very little sign of one author taking over for the other. The Collinses work well together as "Barbara Allan," and even the humor -- which definitely felt inserted into Antiques Roadkill -- is much more seamlessly integrated, making for a genuinely funny read (as opposed to simply a joke-filled one).

Fans of co-author Max Allan Collins will appreciate a couple of touches that must have come from him: namely a Mike Hammer reference and the fact that the antique this time around is a rare edition of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs (the "sleuth" Collins used for his Disaster series book The Pearl Harbor Murders). But all in all, "Barbara Allan" is really coming into her own, and the Trash 'n' Treasures series has to be the quirkiest cozy series on the market.

In fact, in many ways, the Collinses seem to be turning the classic tropes of the cozy subgenre on their ear. After all, the Bornes aren't independently wealthy; their dog is diabetic, blind, and named after raw fish; they're highly dependent on psychiatric medications just for their daily functioning (with disastrously funny results if, for example, they get their pill boxes confused); and their antiques are solely low-rent, flea-market fare (Mother is not averse to Dumpster diving) that clearly falls under the heading of the series' inspiration, the adage "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

In short, unlike most escapist fiction protagonists, the Bornes do not have a life to which it is likely the reader will aspire (except perhaps for those readers who should be, but aren't already, on psych meds). It more closely resembles horror fiction in that the events make you feel better about your own life.

Of course, I could be off on my facts a bit there, given that I wouldn't even have heard of this series if it weren't co-written by one of my favorite authors. But Antiques Flee Market actually turned out to be quite a fun read. Each chapter ends with an (often tongue-in-cheek) antique-buying tip, and the couple have a delightfully wicked sense of humor (dig that soap-opera-derived cliffhanger ending!). I'm already looking forward to reading the fourth book in the series, Antiques Bizarre.

Review by Armchair Interviews:

Barbara Allan is the pseudonym for the husband-and-wife writing team of Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins. This is the third in the delightful Trash `n' Treasures series.

The charming Brandy Borne has retuned home to her small Midwestern hometown of Serenity to live with her elderly mother. The two women are running an antique stall in the town and are visiting a special flea market to buy stock when they run into Walter Yeager selling some of his belongings. He is trying to help out Chaz, a newly discovered granddaughter, the product of a wartime romance in England.

Chaz is real character, but hits it off with Brandy and her mother Vivian when they prevent Walter from selling a valuable first-edition Tarzan book for less than it is worth. Then a theft distracts everyone, but Brandy is astute enough to realize that Chaz knows something, and follows up on it and gets the money back. When she meets Chaz at the trailer park where she lives with her grandfather, they discover Walter dead, apparently a heart attack. Vivian is convinced it is murder, and when Chaz is arrested, she is convinced she is innocent. Vivian's meddling in the investigation pulls in Brandy, and the two manage to confound and irritate the local police. They also manage to put themselves in danger, as usual.

The fast pace, amusing characters, and unusual plot make this light and cozy mystery a winner.

Armchair Interview says: A fun read with fun characters.