JAMESON, John & OTHERS Truths about Whisky

London: Printed by Sutton Sharpe and Co., 1878. Royal octavo. pp. vi, [2], 103, [7], 4 (plates). Modern green cloth with original cloth embossed in black mounted on upper cover. Traced of old staining to final advert leaf. A very good copy with fine impressions of the plates. Scarce.

COPAC locates 13 copies.
This seems to have been a joint venture by the principal four firms of Dublin Whisky distillers: John Jameson and Son, William Jameson and Co., John Power and Son, and George Roe and Co. They were
starting to feel the effects of cheap blended Scotch whiskies and joined forces, they “have for the last two years been engaged in an endeavour to place some check upon the practices of the fraudulent traders by whom silent spirit, variously disguised and flavoured, is sold under the name of whisky”. “As a great whisky book it records lost glories. The four gatefold plates are endlessly fascinating and a unique record of the Dublin distilleries now swept away by the vagaries of the market. Today you can still visit what remains of the Old Jameson Distillery in Bow Street ... Truths about Whisky is a unique record and a joy to read. A sense of outrage pervades its pages and with its concern for authenticity and consumer protection and its firm belief that the flavour of pot-still whisky cannot be rivalled, it anticipates a 21st-century zeitgeist ... it is also a very lovely book, written with passion and beautifully illustrated. Savour and treasure these Truths” - Ian Buxton in his introduction to the 2008 reprint.

L4 6 Draw