Bakelite Style

Rating:
Summary: Beautimous Bakelite, but ...
Review: This coffeetable collectable book about Bakelite and the Style of its time is beautiful and informative. But this memoir of the "miracle material" would have been even better in gloss, as with the brilliant patina of its subject, rather than matte.

The reader is often jarred with syntactical reminders that the book was printed in China: "No longer in demand for consumer goods, Bakelite returned mercurial career ending as it had begun" [sic.] Say what?

And then there is the horror: a Texas Chainsaw Massacre-type approach to test for true Bakelite. The author advises that a good way to tell if a piece is really Bakelite is to take a hacksaw or sandpaper to it! Please ignore this part of the book. Don't ruin the Bakelite! They don't make it any more! There are better Bakelite barometers!

Aside from these admonitions, this is a big, broad, beautiful buffet, an overview and history of bygone eras' sumptuous stuff and practical products.
TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: Beautimous Bakelite, but ...
Review: This coffeetable collectable book about Bakelite and the Style of its time is beautiful and informative. But this memoir of the "miracle material" would have been even better in gloss, as with the brilliant patina of its subject, rather than matte.

The reader is often jarred with syntactical reminders that the book was printed in China: "No longer in demand for consumer goods, Bakelite returned mercurial career ending as it had begun" [sic.] Say what?

And then there is the horror: a Texas Chainsaw Massacre-type approach to test for true Bakelite. The author advises that a good way to tell if a piece is really Bakelite is to take a hacksaw or sandpaper to it! Please ignore this part of the book. Don't ruin the Bakelite! They don't make it any more! There are better Bakelite barometers!

Aside from these admonitions, this is a big, broad, beautiful buffet, an overview and history of bygone eras' sumptuous stuff and practical products.
TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer