Tape measures, those useful sewing tools in imaginative cases, are now becoming a collecting passion.

Presented here are over 700 tape measures in brass, wood, celluloid and porcelain figural shapes, dating back to the 1820s and up to the present.

Over 500 color photographs show tape measures in hundreds of variations from animals and birds to people and their houses, and the captions describe their particular winding mechanisms.

Each measure is also given a value range.

(1867)