Warman’s Civil War Collectibles, 3rd Edition,
Since the time of the war itself, collecting Civil War memorabilia, artifacts and relics has become a national pastime. Soldiers sent home souvenirs, even parts of their uniforms, for safekeeping and enjoined their families to take good care of them until they came home. Following the Civil War when the veterans, both North and South, organized various associations, their meeting halls were resplendent with mementos, prints and paintings of the war. Today collecting has become more commercial than it was when the veterans did the collecting. Now antique shops, stores specializing in the sale of Civil War artifacts, and auction houses holding Civil War-specific auctions each sell Civil War memorabilia to an ever-increasing collector market. Thus a book dedicated to price guides for such collectible items may be useful. This book is beautifully illustrated with examples of the entire gamut of Civil War collectibles. A special introductory treatise on collecting, the rarity of items, how people collect, fragility of some collectibles, reproduction alert and pricing attempts to give the readers an awareness of the joys and possible pitfalls of the Civil War collecting field. The book is broken down by chapters on specific items, such as accoutrements, flags, medical items, photographs, firearms, swords and uniforms. Each chapter contains great color photos. The book gives a description of each item illustrated and a price or value. Most of the values given are actual prices paid for items as purchased from a dealer or at auction. And therein is one of the drawbacks of this price guide. With few exceptions the items pictured and the prices given are for those actual items, not for items of like nature. In some cases the prices are extremely high (often for individual, high-end, rare items). In other cases an item’s specific auction price may not be representative of a similar item’s cost in a dealer’s shop, on e-Bay or in a dealer’s catalog. Thus the value of one item may not be the true value of a like item, and no range of prices is given for comparison. It generally would have been better, for example, to show a Model 1849 .31 cal. revolver and list values in fair, good, excellent and mint categories for items of that type rather than the individual item and its individual price as sold. Some items shown t are not Civil War vintage. Some are even misidentified. The author used photos from one auction house that apparently often sells material in groups, including Civil War, postwar, and even 20th century pieces. Such grouping creates a batch value that negates the pricing of an individual item within the group. In some cases reproduction items are shown. Although there may be a market for such items, they are out of place in a book entitled Civil War Collectibles. Although this book is beautifully illustrated in full color, it does not meet the promise of its sub-title, Identification and Price Guide. I would like to suggest that a Civil War collector looking for a good reference source as a price guide might instead purchase a copy of The Civil War Collector’s Price Guide, 11th edition (with a 12th edition soon to be released). You will find that volume much more thorough and much closer to an “identification and price guide.” If you want pretty, sharp and clear color photos of Civil War (and other) items, you might enjoy this volume. For price information, I’d look elsewhere. Reviewer: Michael J. Winey Michael J. Winey, who has a BS in history and MS in history museum training, was a curator for more than 25 years and is retired from the U.S. Army Military History Institute in Carlisle, Pa.
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Photographs, sources, glossary, bibliography, index, 399 pp., 2009, Krause Publications,