For almost 20 years; Sears; Roebuck and Company purveyed the materials for complete prefabricated houses; providing thousands of Americans with attractive and comfortable low-cost dwellings. Many of these homes are still a common feature in cities and towns across America.The present volume; a meticulous reproduction of a rare Sears; Roebuck catalog of 1926; provides a thorough; accurate record of the companys "Honor Bilt Modern Homes." Over 300 photographs and illustrations; with full descriptions; offer views of 86 different houses and cottages of widely varying sizes and designs. Readers may recognize familiar architectural styles in designs such as the cozy six-room "Homewood" bungalow or the elegant "Lexington;" a nine-room; green-shuttered colonial. Also shown are several room interiors for each of 14 homes; along with photographs and plans for nine garages and a hunters cabin. In addition to visual documentation; the catalog provides extensive; detailed construction information; ranging from the grade of exterior siding to the type of wood used for flooring; windows; and trim.An invaluable primary source illustrated for anyone engaged in the study; authentication; or restoration of antique homes or furnishings; this period catalog will also be of special value to architectural and social historians; Americana enthusiasts; and general readers.
#1074285 in eBooks 2012-07-04 2012-06-06File Name: B008TVLH5E
Review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Great resource. mediocre translation to kindleBy HyacinthThis book is a fantastic resource on 1920s fashion. starting with "everyday" as indicated in the title. but edging on into the "dressy" showing us "every-evening" worthy dresses. shoes. and so forth.There is a nice introduction including brief year-by-year overviews of how things changed. and lots of charming examples.Unfortunately. although the summaries are year-by-year. the book itself is broken into only two sections. 1920-24 and 1925-29. Because the reference in each description is given in page numbers and "real page numbers" are not enabled for the kindle edition. its nearly impossible to tell which illustration belongs to which year.Another problem with the kindle edition is that the graphics are low resolution. To be able to read the catalog descriptions. you have to blow the image up (not easy on some kindle devices) and even once this is done the text is fuzzy and hard to read.Im a steadfast kindle reader and love to see publishers migrate their books to electronic versions. but it needs to be done with a little sensitivity and savvy. Fifteen minutes of cross-referencing would have changed this barely usable ebook into a pleasure. and a little strategizing as to how to present readable image text could have made it a delight.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Just as great as the others in the seriesBy Nancy C. BeckThese "Everyday Fashions" books are great. You not only get an idea of the types of clothing people wore during any particular decade. but in a few cases. you even get some pricing (too bad its not all the time. but I digress).The reason Ive been getting these books is different from others who have posted here. I dont try to get ideas to sew clothes either on a personal or professional basis (like for a play or something). The reason is that Im a writer. and I like to see what my characters should be or might be wearing for any particular decade. as I tend to write stories set in the 1920s. 1930s. 1940s. Whats nice is that the books do a year-by-year thing. so in this instance. you can see what a woman wore in 1919 as opposed to 1925 - and what a difference in womens clothing in just 6 years!Yes. theyre in black and white. but I remember a reviewer for one of these books stating that the Sears catalogs were typically in black and white anyway. Besides. I can just as easily imagine different colors for different outfits (and a lot of times. they will tell you what colors are available. as part of the ad).The preface/forward for the 1920s (also includes 1919) is split among pre-flapper. flapper. and nudges into the Depression (1930). Utterly fascinating. And I felt there was a enough of mens clothing included here. too. though this was a fairly conservative era for mens fashions. so IMHO the suits. hats. and coats. etc.. would necessarily look pretty similar.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Great book for understanding clothing of the Average American of the 1920sBy Tish G.an excellent edition for anyone who wants to understand the styles that dominated the first modern decade of the 20th century. Far from Paris fashion. the clothing depicted in this volume is the stuff or our grand and great-grandparents lives. The everyday clothing of the housewife and the banker. the bobbed co-ed and the dapper auto mechanic. If you want to learn more about the look of the 20s and how to add a 20s flair to your personal style. this is a great book to add to your library.
