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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book, beautiful pictures; but see my warning below
Review: Probably because it is one of the newer books on Shaker furniture, this one seems to be the most accurate on the provenance of the many surviving Shaker items. It appears they have done an excellent job of deciphering where a piece was made regardless which village it was found. THERE IS WARNING HOWEVER! Don't be fooled by what they mean by "The Complete Book." They use the word complete to mean, that in addition to covering the "Shaker Golden Years" of 1830 to around 1850, they have included items from the 18th to the 20th century. With approximately 400 beautiful illustrations, they can't possibly cover every important piece of Shakerdom. To my disappointment, they did not discuss the particular 12 to 20 foot benches of two slightly differing styles that I have seen pictured in the meeting room at Sabathday Lake. Nor did they show the small wall clock at Sabathday Lake that I wanted to know about. The authors certainly accomplished their goals of descibing the various, differing forms used by the different locatations over the approximate 150 years covered. For me the final test is, would I buy it again -- Abosolutely.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, beautiful pictures; but see my warning below
Review: Probably because it is one of the newer books on Shaker furniture, this one seems to be the most accurate on the provenance of the many surviving Shaker items. It appears they have done an excellent job of deciphering where a piece was made regardless which village it was found. THERE IS WARNING HOWEVER! Don't be fooled by what they mean by "The Complete Book." They use the word complete to mean, that in addition to covering the "Shaker Golden Years" of 1830 to around 1850, they have included items from the 18th to the 20th century. With approximately 400 beautiful illustrations, they can't possibly cover every important piece of Shakerdom. To my disappointment, they did not discuss the particular 12 to 20 foot benches of two slightly differing styles that I have seen pictured in the meeting room at Sabathday Lake. Nor did they show the small wall clock at Sabathday Lake that I wanted to know about. The authors certainly accomplished their goals of descibing the various, differing forms used by the different locatations over the approximate 150 years covered. For me the final test is, would I buy it again -- Abosolutely.
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