Almost anything is collectable nowadays, and so has its price. That is not intended as a caustic comment since I myself have collected some fairly esoteric materials, and our forerunners in collecting the unlikely have, of course, laid the foundations for some of most notable museum (and library) collections. Some enterprising firms are now manufacturing specifically for the collectors’ and nostalgia market; no sooner had I received this review copy than I also received through the post from the manufacturers of the car I drive a catalogue full of delightful small replicas of their cars, ancient and modern. They were called toys when I was a boy, but now they are called collectables and priced accordingly.
While my own preference is for aircraft, there can be no doubting the fascination of the motor car: its impact on the twentieth century has been at least as great and liberating (until our roads and lungs have become blocked) as that of the railways in the nineteenth century. The various price guides to collectables of all kinds always have their automobilia section, and this title itself dates back to a first edition in 1982, followed by the second in 1992. It is no surprise, given the power of nostalgia and the growth of the collectables market (not to mention ever increasing scarcity of earlier materials at prices the average collector can no longer afford), that this third edition adds a new section for the post‐1950 period. All the existing entries have been reviewed and new illustrations commissioned throughout.
After a brief (less than one page) introduction, material is arranged in thematic chapters covering every aspect of an ultimately broad subject. Chapters on lamps and other motor car accessories lead on to signs and containers, manufacturers’ publicity material (including catalogues and brochures ‐ I must hang on to the ones I have just been given as I buy a new car), ephemera, trophies and programmes, novelties, toy cars, pedal cars, and finally the new section on motor sport and post‐1950 motoring. Each chapter has a short (again less than one page) introduction, then comprises an outstanding range of photographs of exhibits, many in colour, with reasonably detailed captions. In the circumstances this seems the best way to treat the subjects: let the objects and exhibits speak for themselves visually with usually enough detail in the captions to identify and locate each item. And compared with the various price guides, the photographs here are all of more generous size and printed clearly. Among the postcards, maps, etc., the ephemera section also offers a fairly representative selection of books and magazines.
The book is completed by a disappointingly cursory bibliography, a reasonable index, and a price guide which lists each illustration number (so that I can inform you that there are 814 black and white photographs and 143 colour plates) with a price range beside it. For payment against a proforma invoice (not included in the review copy so that I cannot tell you how much) purchasers may receive an updated price list every autumn. Without it intending to be a price guide in the manner of such as the Lyle or Millers series, that takes the book almost into a category of its own: unlike in the annual price guides, the selection of contents is not dictated by what has happened to pass through the salerooms within a specified period, but by a planned survey of the whole subject field. Almost every item illustrated is a typical or representative example of its type, and this approach allows full coverage and careful selection. The two authors are very much experts and complement one another well; both are connected with Sotheby’s, Gardiner as a collector of long standing and consultant to the auction house, Morris as director and former head of the Collectors’ Department, in both cases with Sotheby’s Sussex. The publishers need no introduction to our readers either for the general standard of authority in their output, or its attractive presentation ‐ both features the hallmark of this latest product.
The excellent collection and presentation of information in mainly pictorial form, with enough fact in the captions to clarify and supplement the visual record, make this book a useful reference work and a fascinating browse. The motor car still exerts its enormous influence over us and the market for collectables of all kinds seem to remain buoyant; all these factors combine to make this an attractive and popular purchase for general reference collections and for collections covering motoring history in any way.
