A pretty unique source book for D&D (with an appendix containing rules to adapt its content for AD&D) The Book of Marvelous Magic is both weird and pretty funny. Basically it’s a 80 page book of magical items, loads of them, as well as listings for other magical items previously published. For example under “Amulets” one of them has already been explained in the D&D Expert Set so the entry will just tell you that.

This means that the majority of this are original magical items and if there is one thing you can tell from browsing through the book is the fact that Gygax and Mentzer clearly were having a bit of fun doing this list. It’s full of just amusing items such as a Barrel of Monkeys, a Can of Worms or a Can of Can’t, or even a Sun Deck. 

However, there are other items which just feel a bit crazy today. You can see that in the very first item of the list, the “Alternate World Gate”, a listing of gate items which can transport characters from other TSR games into your D&D campaign, like a Violin Case that can transport a mobster from the Gangbusters game or a Medal which can bring a first world war ace pilot into your fantasy campaign. There’s a lot of fun to be had with these items but there are also useful ones and particularly useful randomized tables of items which will really help you furnish your campaign.