Warman’s McCoy Pottery, 2nd Edition; Identification and Price Guide

I felt that this volume was a step up from the first, because of the additional and in-depth information included in the first part of this book. For example, it included Nelson and Billie McCoy’s memories of working at McCoy pottery. Also a nice history of JW McCoy and Brush-McCoy potteries, done by Dewayne Ismand, who is the Records Manager and Archivist for the McCoy Pottery Collectors Society. Section of fakes and reproductions had good explanation and photographs. Also new to this edition was a section dedicated to Brush Pottery.

What I did not like was the sometimes lackluster photographs. Too many, no matter what color the pottery was, seemed to have been shot on light blue, white or gray backgrounds. Some were photographed on the same color background as the pottery causing it to fade or make the detail hard to see. Worst example I saw of this was on page 253, showing a “Pac-Man Paperweight”. It is an all white piece, with no distinctive details and shot on a white background. Without the caption, I am sure few would identify the face as Pac-Man and nothing would explain why a collector would want this piece for their collection.

One other thing that really stood out to me was that each section began with a few paragraphs and often this information just seemed to be incomplete or lack a good way to get the reader interested in viewing that section. The author also makes comments throughout the book which might indicate that he is possibly not a big fan of McCoy, such as on page 73 (cookie jar section) where he states “even the most enthusiastic collector will admit that some of the jars that McCoy made were a little – how do we put this nicely – boring.” Maybe some do feel that way, but it seems that an author of a collectibles book should show some excitement for the product.

There were a lot of full color pictures and book values shown, but most of these were randomly organized, so if someone were looking to find something by increasing value, it would be hard.

I feel each collectibles book these days should not only include a section on fakes and reproductions, but also have one that has the “inner sanctum” of that product line – the most desirable, hard to find and/or valuable items.

I would recommend this book to a McCoy collector. The beginning section with company history and Nelson and Billie’s remarks are valuable.