Faux Real: Genuine Leather and 2 Years of Inspired Fakes

by Robert Kanigel

Book Overview

What makes genuine leather genuine? What makes real things real? In an age of virtual reality, veneers, synthetics, plastics, fakes, and knockoffs, it's hard to know.

Over the centuries, men and women have devoted enormous energy to making fake things seem real. As early as the fourteenth century, fabric was treated with special oils to make it resemble leather. In the 1870s came Leatherette, a new bookbinding material. The twentieth century...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081222132X
• ISBN13: 9780812221329
• Release Date: September 2010
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"