In 1897 America, you were more likely to be living on a farm than in a city. So if you wanted to buy an extra cloth napkin for Sunday dinner, you had two options. You could hitch up the horse-and-buggy, drive however long it took to get to the general store and hope they still had any napkins in stock. Or you could turn to the latest high-tech tool of the time – a power-free equivalent to the iPad, Internet browser and Amazon website known as the Sears, Roebuck and Company Consumers Guide.

You could literally find anything at the “cheapest supply house on earth.” If you needed a windmill, a solid wood one ran $24 while the latest galvanized steel beauty cost $60. Towers were extra. Tomatoes in a 3-pound tin ran eight cents while chocolate creams in a 5-pound box cost 70 cents. A 300-pound chapel organ cost $36.90, the cheapest baby carriage with a small umbrella was $2.45 and the most expensive four-passenger carriage with a full-length side and back curtains and hand-buffed leather top reached an astonishing $175.

The book also dictated the latest city styles. The finest shoes for men and ladies had heels, laces or buttons, and tapered to a sharp point at the toes. Price ranges from $1.50 to about $3.00. Corsets were a necessity at around $1, and all ladies wore hats trimmed with flowers and bows, and costing from $2 to $7. A Mackintosh coat for men was $5.25 while a tailor-made walking suit for ladies with a blazer and taffeta-lined skirt  ran $13.25.

Forget about photographs in either color or black-and-white. Such advances were too expensive for throwaway catalogs. Instead, items were meticulously illustrated with line engravings and described in three-column pages measuring 8.5-by-11 inches, with miniscule 6-point type. A five-column, 10-page index in the back helped to locate goods. A table of contents divides the tome into 36 parts. The first three chapters consist of modern commentaries that orient readers to the company, the catalog and the era.

As for ordering, the catalog explained the options in seven pages of meticulous detail. Written letters were the only communication medium of the day, and were necessary for asking questions, requesting free samples or making purchases. You could pay by post office money order, express money order, bank draft, cash on delivery, personal check (the slowest and most time consuming method) or cash (not recommended). The company the safety and convenience of express money orders.

As a collector of Sears catalogs, I can only consult my early originals with the delicacy of a lace maker: the pages are brittle and prone to tearing with each turn. This hardbound facsimile is hardy enough to drag to swap meets, garage sales and antique malls. I’ve even plopped pages on copy machines to duplicate pages, so designers in my theater plays can consult them. The book is an invaluable reference for anyone interested in Victorian Americana.

Recommended: Yes