Tim Boyle welcomes you to explore Vintage Books and Fine Art, where he hopes a visit becomes a journey filled with nostalgia, history and discovery
Written by Joe Willey | Photography by Jill Jasuta
Vintage Books and Fine Art will liberate you. It is a place to go when you want to travel without taking a vacation, learn without enrolling at a college, and enjoy the arts without visiting a museum. This shop is where you can experience history and escape into a new story. Owner Tim Boyle does not see just books, newspapers, or maps. Instead, he considers each object for what it is, knowing when you pick something up, “you’re holding a time machine in your hands.”
The history, nostalgia, and romance of the Eastern Shore attracted Tim and his family 15 years ago. Previously living in Pennsylvania, they moved to idyllic Oxford, MD, a small town overlooking the mouth of the Tred Avon River. This former colonial port is an apt home for someone passionate about rare and antiquarian books and maps, as well as historical documents. In 2013, Tim opened Vintage Books and Fine Art in Easton, a larger, more trafficked town only 10 miles from Oxford.
“I intentionally don’t specialize in any particular category,” Tim says wryly. “I want my customers to know they can stop in anytime and find possibly anything.” The offerings are eclectic. But Tim’s easy charm belies his precise eye for quality. While appreciative of digital media and acknowledging its place, he focuses on the tactile quality of holding a printed copy in your hands. Because the technology used to reproduce books, maps, and prints has changed dramatically over the centuries, each example has unique characteristics associated with its era of creation. It is exciting to think that when you hold a colonial-era newspaper, you hold, see, and feel something that Washington, Adams, and Jefferson would have held. At Vintage, the connection with the past is visceral.
The items on the shelves are significant—a testament to the keen eye of Tim and his staff and what interests his patrons. You can find newspapers from the 18th and 19th centuries reporting history we take for granted, or with iconic illustrations by renowned figures like political cartoonist Thomas Nast. There are maps of local significance, hand-colored and illustrated by notable artists. Currently, Vintage has a beautiful selection of illustrated books by the famed American artist, illustrator, traveler, and writer Rockwell Kent. There are photographs, Russian nesting dolls, woodcut prints, phone books, culinary books, and posters—in whatever format, you will find historical and cultural importance.
Tim calls himself an amateur historian, but his self-effacing humility cannot disguise that Vintage offers rare, high-quality objects chosen with discernment and erudition. Even more specialized is the personal service Tim provides to all customers—browsers who wander in while they are visiting or long-standing customers looking for particular books to add to their collections. The shelves at Vintage Books and Fine Art hold something to capture anyone’s interest and fuel a desire to learn more and see and feel history—not on a screen but in your hands. It is as easy as turning a page. CS
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