Pewter Books

I am a pewter collector and dealer and have appreciated this book for all of its information and history of Sheffield pewter. I have been able to date many of my pieces and learned so much about the pewterers of Sheffield. Wonderful reference material and great history of marks.

This is the most helpful, informative book on pewter, I have. Extremely thorough on all sheffield pieces and makers, but I especially enjoy the history of James Dixon. Being a collector of his work, this book has allowed me to date every piece I own. It was well written and well organized. I would highly recommend this book to EVERYONE interested in collecting James Dixon pewter or Sheffield pewter.

If you want to learn about the art of pewtering from a master craftsman, this is the book for you. If you're looking for ways to raise a large, talented, responsible family, you'll want to read these tales. If you want a book filled with interesting stories about a plethora of subjects, all warmly told with humor and intelligence, here's a book to try. Raymond Gibson has written a charming memoir about his double life as a Congregational minister in the winter and a pewter craftsman in the summers, where his children learn a craft that will help them all earn money for college, while spending valuable time together with this master story teller. This book is a must for the thoughtful person's library. You will love it.

This is the story of how a family can work together and create a business that takes on a life of its own. The creation of pewter items has a very long history. It has been used in many countries, and is still done today. This is the story of Ray Gibson and how he discovered that the passion that he has for living and his family could have an outlet in creating art. He was very lucky to find good teachers who were willing to share their knowledge and part of their soul with him. In return he shares this with his family and friends and customers. Ray is a talented author who is able to convey the excitement and sometimes the torture of having an artistic soul. He is able to explain the path of a developing artist/craftsman. It is also nice to hear of a family that was able to stay together and work on common interests. The development of craftsmanship brings with it the obligation to meet high standards, and these standards are applicable to "normal life" also. The story is charmingly told, the book was hard to put down, and it did convey some of the technical knowledge of the craft, but it is not a do-it-yourself book (unless the topic is how to lead a blessed life).

I developed a passing fancy in early pewter, so I assembled a small library of books relative to the subject. Most early pewter in the early United States was imported in and what most collectors encounter. Probably of interest to most, however, is that which was actually made here. Unfortunately for collectors, it is also the most desirable, and hence, the most expensive. It doesn't hurt to look, though, and this book covers all bases. It is over 20 years old, and I'm sure there is a lot of new information out there, but it is still timely and very informative. The whole subject is covered, with all the types, styles, makers, etc. There are ample illustrations and nice close ups of the makers marks. There is plenty of information on the makers and the times that they operated. I've seen this book for less than $10 on Amazon. It is almost a crime for a book as good as this. If you have even a passing interest in knowing more about pewter, especially American, like I did, you will not be disappointed.

Fantastic reference book with over 300 high quality, full color pictures with descriptions and what to look for. Nice range of silver and silver-plate items listed. The last 50 entries are pewter items (yuck). Handy size too.

From front Jacket:

"This is the most comprehensive guide to the subject ever published. It lists all known makers of American silver, pewter and silver plate who worked prior to 1900. There are thousands of entries, many more than in any other book. All the makers' birth and death dates are given, where possible, as well as the period in which they practiced their craft. All known marks are listed and cross-indexed. In short, [this book] makes it simple to identify virtually every piece made by the silversmiths of America."

A bit of confusion reigns at the beginning. At the end of the previous book, Dean had come home, the Dead Man had woken up, etc, etc. All of a sudden, at the beginning of this book, we got a different version of the events at the end of the previous book. A sure sign that Cook does not keep track of what he is doing with these characters. Which explains all the inconsistancies that have crept in.

Garrett, Glen Cook's long suffering detective (usually because he's got a hangover) is hired by rival factions of gods to find the 'key' to their new home. Seems that once the worshippers fall below a critical mass even the gods can get evicted. First one to come up with the key gets to keep their godhood.
So Garrett trots off, maybe not to do what he's been ordered to do but by the time he's kidnapped, gossiped with some of the inhuman (literally) mob members of TunFaire and figured out the redhead he's chasing ain't no redhead, as usual, he and the Dead Man have it all figured out. After a climax with lots of fireworks, the final explanation, including the final double-cross on the part of the gods takes place, left me unsatisfied. Didn't seem finished somehow.
This book was a good addition to the Garrett series but the plot seemed a bit jerky. Glen Cook's cynical observations on religion in general are quite amusing, depending upon your religious leanings. And this book also follows the change in civil temperament that unexpected peace can have on a war economy. Good setup for future squabbles that Garrett will no doubt be drawn into.

I read the Garret series earlier in my life and loved them. I am starting reading them all over by reading his newest in the series. There is wonderful humor in his writing of this series.

This is the 8th in Cook's Garrett series ("Sweet Silver Blues," "Bitter Gold Hearts," "Cold Copper Tears," "Old Tin Sorrows," "Dread Brass Shadows," "Red Iron Nights," "Deadly Quicksilver Lies," "Petty Pewter Gods," "Faded Steel Heat," "Angry Lead Skies," and "Whispering Nickel Idols"). This is a good book that's fun to read. Unfortunately, it's not quite as good as other books in Cook's Garrett series. In many places, you can see that Cook wrote bits and pieces of the book and then cut-and-pasted them into the final order. It's not a big problem -- it's just that the roughness is a bit disconcerting. A more irritating problem is that Garrett is working with a couple of pantheons of gods which I just couldn't keep straight. The individual gods, and the pantheons they belong to, just blend together and I couldn't tell who was doing what to whom. The biggest problem, though, is that the ending just appears out of thin air in the last 10 pages of the book. As I got closer and closer to the physical end, I kept wondering if this was going to be a two-parter: there was just no indication of a reasonable solution. With a sudden flurry of activity, the Dead Man and Garrett take a guess at what's going on and all heck breaks loose (which confirms their theory). Not a very satisfying ending at all. Still, I did enjoy reading the book and do recommend it (but read the earlier books, first). I rate this book at 4 stars out of 5.

BTW: At the time of this review, this book is long out of print. It's tough to find anywhere. As an alternative, look around for the SFBC's "Garrett Investigates." This book is part of that collection.

Add one part Kolchak: The Nightstalker, a touch of Columbo, and heavy helping of wizards, elves, dragons, and all sorts of fantasy creatures. Blend quickly while tongue is planted firmly in cheek. There you have the entire Garrett P.I. series from fantasy writer Glen Cook. Petty Pewter Gods is the 8th book in the series. While it definitely helps to have read the first seven before jumping into this simultaneously zany and action filled installment, Cook does a great job providing just enough back-story to explain the sometimes (O.K. quite often) strained relationships between our hero and his so-called allies.

In this installment, Garrett finds himself in the employment of the gods themselves, who seem to be having a problem holding on to their followers. And when the number of followers falls below a certain level, the gods are threatened with eviction! This one starts out with all the fun and mayhem of the other books, but unfortunately doesn't quite live up to the others in the series. The problem is that in this installment I think the story got too big for Cook, and it appeared destine for multiple volumes. Instead, the author chooses to try and wrap everything up in the last fifteen or so pages, with our hero making a lucky guess and having all you-know-what break loose. While the ensuing chaos is a fun read, don't think to hard about it afterwards, because then you will realize just how contrived it was.

If this was done by most other authors, the story would have fallen flat and turned me off from the rest of the books. But Cook has a way of letting you feel like you are in on some big, cosmic joke. Never taking his protagonist or storyline too seriously, the end result is a fun ride through the magical city of TunFaire. The end result is a lighthearted action-fantasy-adventure that fans of the series will enjoy. If you have never read any of the Garrett P.I. books, don't start with this one, however. Fans of Cook's Black Company series may be surprised by the high humor and just outright silliness that appears in this book, and in the entire series.

This book has been out of print for a while, but is still available at used bookstore vendors and in many libraries. While not the best in the series, its definitely worth reading if you are familiar with the books.

Extremely fast and easy to use. All you have to do is get the length of the word to jumble, put all its letters in alphabetical sequence and find the result. For example, want an anagram of MINUTELY ? The length is 8 and letters sorted become EILMNTUY. Look for 8EIL on page headers and you will quickly arrive to the other anagram UNTIMELY.
The only restriction is when it comes to plurals. Remove the final S and decrease word length by one to find the proper anagram. For example, the anagram for COMPUTERS is only found as COMPUTER.

This a very informative book on pewter, of course. As usual it doesn't have as many marks as I would have liked. That was not a big surprize as none of the books do. When will someone write a book that contains all of the marks in a easy to read and understand format? Question of the century?

Since most of Cook's Garrett books are long out of print and very difficult to come by, you might end up having to buy this consolidation to find the individual stories. This book, "Garrett Investigates," is the 3rd of the three consolidated so far. The others are "The Garrett Files" and "Garrett, P.I.." This book contains the 3rd triad of stories in the Garrett series: "Deadly Quicksilver Lies," "Petty Pewter Gods," "Faded Steel Heat." "The Garrett Files" contains the 1st triad: "Sweet Silver Blues," "Bitter Gold Hearts," and "Cold Copper Tears." "Garrett, P.I." contains the 2nd triad: "Old Tin Sorrows," "Dread Brass Shadows," and "Red Iron Nights." The remaining two books ("Angry Lead Skies," and "Whispering Nickel Idols") still appear to be in print on their own. As were the other two consolidations, this book is well bound, has good quality paper, and is well cut. As a pure average of my ratings for the three contained stories, I rate this book at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5. My individual reviews follow:

"Deadly Quicksilver Lies:" Not Very Happy With This One. Unfortunately, it's not up to par with the rest of the series. First, the book just seems to wander around in the middle. Garrett doesn't seem to be going anywhere with the mystery. It does pick up near the end, but that leads to the second problem: the solution to what's been happening just doesn't mean anything. We know who did what to whom and why (mostly). But, nobody really gets anything out of it. For the reader, the answers to all the questions are just emotionally empty. The final "big" problem with the book is that the character of Garrett's love interest, "Chastity," just falls apart. She's fine through most of the book, but then at the very end, she just drops out of the character (personally, emotionally, and professionaly) Cook set up for her. There's no explanation for it. It's very jarring and unwelcome. Because of this, I can only rate this book at an OK 3 stars out of 5.

"Petty Pewter Gods:" Good, But a Bit Disjointed. This is a good book that's fun to read. Unfortunately, it's not quite as good as other books in Cook's Garrett series. In many places, you can see that Cook wrote bits and pieces of the book and then cut-and-pasted them into the final order. It's not a big problem, it's just that the roughness is a bit disconcerting. A more irritating problem is that Garrett is working with a couple of pantheons of gods which I just couldn't keep straight. The individual gods, and the pantheons they belong to, just blend together and I couldn't tell who was doing what to whom. The biggest problem, though, is that the ending just appears out of thin air in the last 10 pages of the book. As I got closer and closer to the physical end, I kept wondering if this was going to be a two-parter: there was just no indication of a reasonable solution. With a sudden flurry of activity, the Dead Man and Garrett take a guess at what's going on and all heck breaks loose (which confirms their theory). Not a very satisfying ending at all. Still, I did enjoy reading the book and do recommend it. I rate this book at 4 stars out of 5.

"Faded Steel Heat:" Very Good But Has Inconsistencies. As are all Glen Cook's books with the title format of [adjective][metal type][noun], this is an interesting, fun, action-packed read. It's definitely a page-turner. Unfortunately, the minor inconsistencies I noticed in the previous book seem to be propogating in this one. Some of these errors are merely editing or lack of note-checking. For instance, near the beginning of this book, Garrett's talking to CAPTAIN Block. But, from two books back, we know that Block was promoted to COLONEL. A hundred pages on, though, Cook's got Block back as a COLONEL. In another case, Garrett's looking at a captured wagon. He specifically notes ONE prisoner. A couple pages later there are TWO prisoners. One page later, THREE. More seriously, there are behavioral problems. For instance, Garrett and his harem can't keep their minds on their business. In earlier books, Garrett's womanizing didn't really interfere in his business. In this book, both he and the women just stop working on important things (like infiltrations, kidnappings and murder) for a little bit of groping. And I mean they stop right in the middle of those things: not afterwards. Also, Garrett just misses obvious clues. He narrates to us about them, but nothing apparently clicks in his head. And then there's where he takes Tinnie with him to visit the headquarters of The Call (a militant human rights group). But, as noted in earlier books, Tinnie is part elf. Nobody ever notices. These problems are still minor. This is definitely a book to read (along with all the rest of the series). But, because of these discrepencies, I've lowered my rating for the book to 4 stars out of 5.

Well, I rarely if ever use a bookmark and this little number has made me a changed man. Usually I dog-ear my pages or leave my books open, both of which are terrible for keeping up their condition. However, this sturdy little clip secures nicely on the page I want to mark, and looks quite handsome with the pewter-cast oakleaf sticking out. My only complaint would be the gray marks that the clip leaves on the top edge of the pages, but that is certainly better than dogeared books or ones with broken spines! Buy a couple, I am getting another quite soon, they have several different styles.