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What other
enthusiasts say...
On
our book "British Car Mascot Catalogues 1910-1935".
It is now 25 years since my own book
Automobilia: a Guided Tour for Collectors was
published by Batsford, and since then automobile collectables have
become the fastest
growing sector of the old vehicle scene. The major auction houses alone
- Christies,
Bonhams, Coys, Cheffins, H&H and even BCA now all hold regular
sales - are turning
values running into millions of pounds. Of necessity, my own book,
covering as it did
all aspects of automobilia, devoted only a small chapter to the subject
of mascots, but
undoubtedly this area has grown enormously in popularity since.
Sadly, a more detailed book I wrote in 1986 entitled Putting it up
Front although
accepted for publication, never saw print due to the bankruptcy of the
publisher!
A Chapter therein dealt with the subject of fakes, and unhappily it is
a measure of the
popularity of mascot collecting that we now have a flourishing industry
manufacturing
replicas. This is all very well when the items concerned are sold as
replicas, but
unfortunately this is not always the case, and with the passage of time
even replicas
sold as such tend to get re-sold as the real thing.
It is difficult to detect replicas when the true article is unavailable
for comparison, and
here lies the true value of this book. What Chris Jones has done is to
search out and
republish between two covers all the original mascot makers' catalogues
so that collectors
may have a blueprint against which to measure the accuracy of mascots
they are offered,
and can also trace the origins of many of the more obscure examples.
The Beauty of private publishing is that it will enable Chris to expand
the book in future
editions as new catalogues come to light. I welcome the additional
information and
knowledge of the subject which the book will make available to all
collectors, and, indeed,
we might see at some future date additional volumes relating to
American mascots,
French mascots and those of other producers....
I am delighted to be associated with Chris's valuable contribution to
the Hobby.
Mike Worthington- Williams
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