Fostoria Useful and Ornamental

This book is the last in the series by these authors and contains the all items which did not fit into the dinnerware lines and other collections covered by the previous books. The book is well illustrated with color photos and numerous black and white catalogue pages and is organized by category; e.g. Boudoir Sets, Figurals, Lamps, Syrups, etc. Items are included from Fostoria’s entire span of production. The Vases and Candlesticks sections are the longest in the book and list all the items know to the authors whether they are pictured or not. There are prices and production dates, by color where applicable. Included in the introduction are nine pages of advertising reprints, offering a glimpse of the marketing genius that kept Fostoria going for so many years. Finally, the index included with this volume is a Master Index which cross references the patterns in all four volumes.

This book contains so many items that I’ve never seen pictured in reference books before. As I page through this book, I am constantly astounded as I recognize pieces I’ve seen over the years and never knew who made them. I have two small complaints about this book. First, if the item pictured was discussed in one of the previous volumes they refer you that volume for the prices. This is not as bad as it sounds as the "missing" prices are for patterns that are covered in numerous other reference books. Second, there is almost no pricing for the early pressed patterns pictured in the book. In addition the pricing tends to be a little higher than most of the other references. Despite these small complaints, this is still a great reference. There is a huge amount of information in this book that is not available in any of the references out there today. In my opinion, this book does for Fostoria what the Weatherman Depression Book 2 does for Depression glass in general.

Review by: Kitty (bailey7)