Antique Mining Equipment and Collectables; D.W. Pearson & R. Bommarito.
Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 2002, 172pp, 450+ photographs: PB. Approx. 18
GBP.


For those mining historians who are 'blessed' with even the smallest
hint of the magpie tendency this book is a veritable feast of mining
collectables. The book is written by an antique dealer who specialises
in mining artifacts, together with a former owner of an antiquarian
bookshop, both of whom reside in Nevada which is probably as close to
nirvana as one could wish to reside for the collector of mining
memorabilia.

The authors have assembled a positively mouth-watering cornucopia of
mining and mining related equipment, e.g. assaying materials and other
ephemera. Arranged in thirty chapters and accompanied by over 450
colour photographs they have described and valued material that they
have collected, sold and seen in  other collections during the course
of some thirty years' following their passion and here they have
assembled the fruits of their labours. As they say, "to provide the
public, collectors and dealers with one readily available source to
refer to'.

Not surprisingly, the book concerns itself entirely with the mining
industries of the USA and in particular that of the metal-mining
industry of the West, almost to the complete exclusion of the country's
coal-mining industry. From the very small, for example, jewellery,
utilising nuggets of native ores and model mining tools to the other
extreme, mine locomotives and hydraulic mining 'cannons' the authors
appear to have covered almost every conceivable artefact used in the
mining industries.

Several are well known collectors items here in the UK, mine lamps;
carbide, oil and safety lamps and share certificates, to name but two
and of the latter they reproduce some fine examples, replete with
stunning vignettes of mining scenes. Oh that our own 19th century
mining companies had issued such colourful and artistically inclined
certificates! Also included are some lesser-known mining collectables,
such as a seemingly large and varied collection of candlesticks, some
particularly ornate and made as presentation pieces. The absence of
candlesticks in the collections of UK aficionado's and museums, at
least to this reviewers knowledge, is probably explained by the
ubiquitous use of a lump of clay to secure the candle to a hat or
rock-face? Such is the apparent interest these candlesticks have for
the American collector that several books have been written about them.

Surprisingly though only one lithograph of a mining scene and no
original art work, be it oil, water-colour or pencil sketch et al, is
depicted in the book; perhaps the latter are all in art collections and
libraries and maybe our American friends are less inclined to tear
apart old books for their illustrations!

There is a short bibliography and a list of periodicals devoted to
mining collectables. This book may just tempt someone to write its UK
equivalent, otherwise it is a fascinating glimpse of one aspect of
mining history in the making and the sheer scale of material available
to the collector in the USA.

Peter Challis