Truth & Tales

Books made in the 1800s came into existence when printing methods were fast-changing and bookbinding was artful. Now 124 to 223 years old, most have become scarce, rare, or even one-of-a-kind. Bindings were crafted, not manufactured, of leather or cloth, and embellished with golden gilt or decorative raised stamping. Pages often had borders or decorative corners, and were filled with intricate illustrations and chapter vignettes. Letters, numbers, and punctuation was manually set until mid-century, when the rotary printing press was invented. Each of these survivors holds a story all its own, in addition to the one it holds inside. Open it and step back into a time of carriages and lamplighters. Whose book was this? Was it a man in a top hat? A woman in a bustle? Such are the special volumes in the Truth & Tales Bookshop.