Souvenir Buildings Miniature Monuments: From the Collection of Ace Architects

by Alan Weintraub, David Weingarten, Alan Weintraub (Photographer)

The Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower and the Tower of London are just a few of a vast range of miniature monuments and souvenir buildings in the collection of over 2400 objects owned by the authors of this book. They even have 100 Statues of Liberty, and no two are alike. For the book, they have selected nearly 1000 buildings, which have been specially photographed in settings which aim to be witty and amusing.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1996

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those of us who collect souvenir miniature buildings, this is one of 5 books that has been published on the subject! One of the others was just published in November 2020 (at about $100), and there are a couple pamphlet style publications from the late '70's.
Majua (and David Weingarten, not mentioned in the title listing here) have another book out on the same subject. It is superior to this - larger, and photos of individual pieces.
Nice intro - but it is of smaller format, and the pieces are grouped together for photos. And not always clealry identified.
Their prose is cumbersome at times, trying to add gravitas to a collecting hobby. Lots of references to architectural history, and memory. Memory - the thing is, those of us who collect the pieces often have not seen them where they actually exist (if they still exist). So there is no Proust-like "memory" linking the piece to a travel/life experience.
Still, as one of the few books on this subject, worth picking up and browsing.
Better yet, join the Souvenir Building Collectors Society and use their webpage.