Avon Collectible Fashion Jewelry and Awards by Monica Lynn Clements, Patricia Rosser Clements (1998, Paperback)

When I visit a book store, I can open a book and thumb through it prior to purchasing to explore the qualifications of the book, the author/s, and whether the book is what I expected or not.

I am slowly learning the authors in the collectibles field to especially know whether to purchase their books on-line or not. Unfortunately, I did not skim through this book prior to purchasing on-line.

I wanted an Avon Jewelry book to help me identify and describe the collectible Avon Jewelry that I have found at various tag, garage or estate sales, and thought this book could help. I was definitely mistaken.

The book is full of beautiful pictures, but the captions are vague and worthless; not what one expects from a collectors' Guide.

Three such avoidance of accuracy and information were: (Captions quoted.)

1. "Christmas Tree Pin with red stones, circa 1990" as stated on page 62, instead of Avon's description of "Victorian Tree Pin" with the actual date of 1992.

2. On page 39, authors wrote "Abolone (sic - spelled wrong) set includes necklace with 14-inch silver metal chain, silver bracelet trimmed with gold, and ring set in silver, circa 1990s," when there is no gold or silver in the set, except maybe washed in gold or silver, but definitely not true silver or gold; Avon advertised this set in their 1975 catalog, much earlier than 1990s.

3. The last straw for me was the beautiful set that Avon sold in 1971 (page 37); even though the authors got the date correct, they simply ignored the title to the set, but instead wrote, "pearl and gold set" when this set is Avon's "Evening Creation" set.

Did the authors do any research? I think not. So, even though I sell books, I encourage everyone to look at the books prior to purchasing or read as many reviews as possible so they will not be as disappointed as I was when I received this book.