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Markham. Gervase
The English Hous-Wife
CONTAINING The inward and outward Vertues which ought to be in a compleat Woman: As her skill in Physick, Surgery, Cookery, Extraction of Oyles, Banqueting stussc, Ordering of great Feasts, Preserving of all forts of Wines, conceited Secrets, Distillations, Perfumes, ordering of Wool, Hemp, Flax: making Cloth and Dying, the knowledge of Dayries: Office of Malting: of Oates, their excellent uses in a family: of Brewing, Baking, and all other things belonging to an houshold. A Work generally approved, and now the sixth time much augmented, purged, and made most profitable and necessary for all men, and the general good of this NATION. By G.M. LONDON, Printed by W.Wilson, for E.Brewster, and George Sawbridge, at the Bible on Ludgate-hill, neere Fleet bridge. 1656.
4to. 1fep. Title Page. [1] 2pp Epistle. 4pp The Table. 1-188. 1fep. On p119 illustrations of wine gages. Bound in dark brown modern half calf with marble boards and calf corners and gilt lines. Spine with raised bands, red label with gilt lettering and lines. Clean internally with very age browning. A handsome copy of a scarce book.
- Gervase Markham or 'Jervis', born 1568. English poet and miscellaneous writer, third son of Sir Robert Markham of Cotham, Nottinghamshire. He was a soldier of fortune in the Low Countries, and later was a captain under the Earl of Essex's command in Ireland . He was acquainted with Latin and several modern languages, and had an exhaustive practical acquaintance with the arts of forestry and agriculture . He was a noted horse-breeder, and is said to have imported the first Arab horse into England., otherwise very little is known of the events of his life . The story of the murderous quarrel between Gervase Markham and Sir John Holies related in the Biographia Britannica (s.v . Holies) has been generally connected with him, but in the Dictionary of National Biography, Sir Clements R . Markham, a descendant from the same family, refers it to another contemporary of the same name, whose monument is still to be seen in Laneham church . Gervase Markham was buried at St Giles's, Cripplegate, London, on the 3rd of February 1637 . He was a voluminous writer on many subjects, but he repeated himself considerably in his works, sometimes reprinting the same books under other titles . His booksellers procured a declaration from him in 1617 that he would produce no more on certain topics . Markham's writings include: The Teares of the Beloved (1600) and Marie Magdalene's Teares (1601) long and rather commonplace poems on the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. His best known book is 'A Way to get Wealth' which contains 'The English House-wife'. It is printed as '2 book' at the top of each page, indicating it is the second-book of Markam's 'Country Contentments' 1st edition - 1615. It was later published as 'A Way to get Wealth' with the 'English Hous-wife' being published as the third book.. It ran to many editions and Oxfords cites - 1623(2nd). (no 3rd). 1631(4th). 1637(5th). 1648. 1649. This copy of 1656(6th). 1660(7th). 1664. 1668(8th). 1675. 1683(9). An edition of 1653 was reprinted in 1907. Never the less, and despite so many editions, it is still a very scarce book and is usually found and sold on its own. It is as an important seventeenth century cookery book and a very interesting item that Oxford rates as having more modern recipes than those of preceding books, albeit with many obsolete dishes. He also rates the medical recipes and finds them disgusting and appalling, with the use of animal dung and other filthy ingredients being frequently used. Surprisingly the first recipe for Haggis is found in the 1615 edition (and subsequent editions) of Markham's 'English Hus-wife' in chapter 8 about the benefits of Oates. NB: I just received an interesting and welcome email from Regula Ysewijn, a food photographer, informing me that Haggis did not appear first in the English Hous-wife as I have mistakenly stated above, but in a cookery book called ‘Liber Cure Cocorum’, from the County of Lancashire in England. Written in verse and dating from around 1430. Called ‘Hagese’ in the book, the general recipe mirrors the one made in Scotland. As I was born in Scotland, it is a big surprise to find that it now appears our celebrated national pudding possibly originated in England. I am now going to see if I can take this very surprising news further. My research must now try to answer the following …. Did the Lancashire recipe originate in Lancashire or any other English location, or did it originate in Scotland and was brought to England. Lets see…. NB: There is an interesting site online called the 'Medievalists.net. There, there is further information about Liber Cure Cocurum to be seen.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10923

Marshall Agnes Bertha - with the four coloured plates.
THE BOOK OF ICES.
[FOURTEENTH THOUSAND.] INCLUDING CREAM AND WATER ICES, SORBETS, MOUSSES, ICED SOUFFLES, AND VARIOUS ICED DISHES, WITH NAMES IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH, AND VARIOUS COLOURED DESIGNES FOR ICES. BY A.B. MARSHALL. (Copyright.) REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION. London: MARSHALL’S SCHOOL OF COOKERY, 32, MORTIMER STREET. SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LIMITED, 4, STATIONERS’-HALL, COURT. [Price Half-a-Crown nett.]
180 x 120mm. n/d. Front paste-down and end-paper with lovely advertisements. Half-title. On verso advertisement for all Marshall’s books. [1] Frontispiece – one of the four coloured plates. Title page with tissue guard. [1] (1)vi-vii Contents. [1] (1)2-52. (1)54-76 Advertisements featuring wonderful illustrated drawings of Marshall’s ice-moulds, ice-pots and machines. (1)78-79 Index. On verso advertisement for all Marshall’s dry goods. [1] End-paper and paste-down with lovely advertisements. Original bright blue cloth cover with blind tolled lines and bright gilt writing. Internally very clean with the four coloured plates with tissue guards. A lovely copy of this very scarce much sought after thin volume. Earlier copies were published without the plates and had limited advertisements.
- Mrs. Agnes Bertha Marshall (born Walthamstow, Essex 1855 – died Brighton 1905) was a celebrity cook similar to today's television stars who hold cookery demonstrations and write books. Had there been television in her day, Mrs. Marshall would have without question, been a cookery pundit on the small screen. She was very well informed and always keen to adopt new technology. Agnes Marshall wrote four books: ‘The Book of Ices’ 1885; ‘Mrs. A.B. Marshall's Book of Cookery’ 1888; ‘Mrs. A.B. Marshall's Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes’ 1891; ‘Fancy Ices’ 1894; These are considered to be some of the finest books of their type ever written, especially those on ices, of which Mrs. Marshall was the Queen. Her recipes are clear, accurate, and well illustrated. She was very industrious, owning and running a domestic staff agency business, selling domestic and cooking equipment, and running a successful school of cookery in Welbeck St, London. She campaigned vigorously for better standards of food hygiene. Agnes toured extensively, lecturing and demonstrating her techniques to huge audiences. She even took her lectures to the United States in the summer of 1888. Two years earlier in 1886 she had started a magazine called "The Table". Mrs. Marshall can be credited with the invention of the ice cream edible cone, mentioned in her 1888 cookery book, the recipe being "cornets with cream". This predates American claims to the invention in 1904. There are no known earlier references to the edible ice cream cone, which nowadays we all take for granted. Her books stimulated demand for imported Norwegian ice, which was supplied from the building that is now the London Canal Museum. An exhibition at Syon House (1998) and at London Canal Museum (1999) told the story of her amazing life. Marshall has been neglected by historians, and is not famous today, unlike Mrs. Beeton, whose work benefited from commercial promotion long after her death. In contrast Mrs. Marshall's family did not make a long-term success of her business. Sadly, Agnes Marshall’s life ended too early. She died at age of forty nine recovering from injuries sustained from a riding accident. Marshall’s newspaper, company, and school survived her well into the twentieth century and her influence and opinions endured even longer.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11135

Marshall Agnes Bertha - with the four coloured plates.
THE BOOK OF ICES
INCLUDING CREAM AND WATER ICES, SORBETS, MOUSSES, ICED SOUFFLES, AND VARIOUS ICED DISHES, WITH NAMES IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH, AND VARIOUS COLOURED DESIGNS FOR ICES. BY A.B. MARSHALL. (Copyright.) REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION. London: MARSHALL’S SCHOOL OF COOKERY, 32, MORTIMER STREET. SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LIMITED, 4, STATIONERS’-HALL, COURT. [Price Half-a-Crown net.]
180 x 120mm. n/d. Front paste-down and end-paper with lovely advertisements. Half-title. On verso advertisement for all Marshall’s books. [1] Frontispiece – one of the four coloured plates. Title page with tissue guard. [1] (1)vi-vii Contents. [1] (1)2-52. (1)54-76 Advertisements featuring wonderful illustrated drawings of Marshall’s ice-moulds, ice-pots and machines. (1)78-79 Index. On verso advertisement for all Marshall’s dry goods. [1] End-paper and paste-down with lovely advertisements. Original bright blue cloth cover with blind tolled lines and bright gilt writing. Internally very clean with the four coloured plates with tissue guards. A lovely copy of this very scarce much sought after thin volume. Earlier copies were published without the plates and had limited advertisements.
- In Ivan Day's extremely interesting web-site "Historic Food" there is an article about the history of ice-moulds. It states "The tradition of making novelty ices in the form of vegetables, fruits and other food items seems to have started in late seventeenth Naples, where moulded sorbetti were known as pezzi duri (hard pieces). A pewter mould for making asparagus ices is illustrated in Gillier's 'Canammeliste Francaise' - Nancy: 1750. By the 1860s these moulds were to be found at ‘most ironmonger's', so bunches of ice cream or water ice asparagus (see image #6 below) seem to have become popular by this time with Victorian diners. They were frequently illustrated in nineteenth and early twentieth century cookery texts, such as this work by Marshall, also Theodore Garrett and John Kirkland. American mould manufacturers were still making asparagus moulds in the 1950s, though by this time, they had become much stouter in order to facilitate easy demoulding. The earlier, narrow moulds are not easy to use, as the asparagus ices are difficult to turn out without breaking. They should be dipped into cold water for about twelve seconds and the ices rolled out onto a clean table napkin with the finger tips, rather than the point of a knife, which is usual with most other ice-moulds".--- If you go hunting thro' the stalls on Portobello Road, London, on a Saturday morning you will still be able to find those Victorian pewter or copper ice-cream moulds. The good ones can now cost hundreds of pounds. They are much sought after by serious collectors.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11146

Mason. Charlotte
The Ladys Assistant
For Regulating and Supplying her Table, Being a Complete System Of Cookery Containing One Hundred and Fifty select Bills of Fare, properly disposed for Family Dinners Of Five Dishes, to Courses Of Eleven and Fifteen; With Upwards Of Fifty Bills of Fare for Suppers, from Five Dishes to Nineteen; And Several Deserts: Including Likewise, The fullest and choicest Receipts of various Kinds, With Full Directions for preparing them in the most approved Manner, from which a continual Change may be made, as wanted, in the several Bills of Fare: Published from the Manuscript Collection of Mrs. Charlotte Mason, A professed Housekeeper, who had upwards of Thirty Years Experience in Families of the first fashion. The Third Edition. "The most refin'd understanding and the most exalted sentiments do not place a " woman above the little duties of life." Mrs. Griffith. London; Printed for J. Walter Homer's- Head, Charing- Cross. M.DCC.LXXVII
8vo. 2fep with manuscript signature of Catharine Driffield 1701. Title Page. [1] 2pp. Introduction to First Edition and Adverts to the second edition. [1]+1-123 Bills of fare. [1] 125-428. 429-436 List of seasonal foods. 21pp Index. 1pp Adverts. 2feps. Light tan original calf boards with nice patina. New tan spine with blind and gilt tooling, and gilt lines, and red and green labels with gilt lettering. Minor foxing on last few leaves of index and the end papers. Very clean internally.
- An excellent copy. 123 Bills of fare according to the rules of polite society are the main subject of The Lady’s Assistant: its first 124 pages contain text-only arrangements for between five and nineteen dishes as well as simple cold suppers. The subsequent wealth of recipes, including some relating to New England cooking, are interspersed with pithy information about the resources required by a good cook including an entire section on spices, their origins and uses, and condiments (pp. 290-92). The work closes with lists of seasonal fruit, vegetables and meat for all months of the year, and an extensive index. The Lady’s Assistant was first published in 1773. Little is known about the author, Mrs. Charlotte Mason, whose active period ended with the eighth, i.e. final contemporary edition of this book in ca. 1800: in the subtitle, Mason declares herself ‘a professed housekeeper, who had upwards of thirty years experience in families of the first fashion’, and references her manuscript collection as a source for the material published in this book. The text is preceded by the introduction to the first edition, the ‘Advertisement to the Second Edition’ – which notes that the text has been revised and enlarged, with ‘a full, select, and really useful collection of receipts and amendments, which makes The Lady’s Assistant [...] the most complete book of cookery hitherto extant’ – and the ‘Note to this Edition’, which states that, ‘the continued quick sale of the last corrected edition of this publication [...] ascertains the merits of the book’. ESTC N12254; Maclean, p. 95. Simon, BG 1013.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10910

MASSIALOT. FRANCOIS - With the bookplate of Anton Mosimann
NOUVELLE INSTRUCTION POUR LES CONFITURES,
LES LIQUEURS, ET LES FRUITS; Ou l’on apprend a’ confire toutes; sortes de Fruits, tant secs que liquides; & divers ouvrages de Sucre qui sont du fait des Officiers & Confiseurs; avec la maniere de bien ordonner un Fruit. Suit du Nouveau Cuisinier Royal & Bourgeois, egalement utile aux Maitres d’Hotels & dans les Familles, pour scavoir ce qu’on sert de plus a’la mode dans les Repas. NOUVELLE EDITION. Revue, corrigee, & beaucoup augmentee, Avec de nouveaux Desseins de Tables. (Printer’s device) Du Fonds de Cl. Prudhomme. A PARIS, AUPALAIS, Chez SAUGRAIN Fils, Grand’ Salle, du cote’ de la Cour des Aydes, a’la Providence. M.DCC.XL. AVEC PRIVILEGE DU ROY. (With some Ms. writing not affecting the printed text).
12mo. Marbled paste-down and end-paper. [1] 1fep. Title page. [1] 6pp Preface. 4pp Table des Chapitures. 4pp Approbation. (1)2-518. 36pp Table des Matieres. 6pp Catalogue des Livres. Fep possibly lacking. Marbled paste-down and end-paper. With two folding plates of table settings with sweets displayed. Contemporary full dark brown speckled calf with raised bands and elaborate French gilt tooling in the compartments. With a black label with gilt border and writing. The corners of the boards slightly rubbed. With a nice patina. Internally very clean. A nice copy.
- François Massialot, born in Limoges, 1660, died in Paris, 1733. He was a French chef who served as chef de cuisine (officier de bouche) to various illustrious personages, including Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, the brother of Louis XIV, and his son Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was first duc de Chartres then the Regent, as well as the duc d'Aumont, the Cardinal d’Estrées, and the marquis de Louvois. His ‘Nouveau Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois’ first appeared, anonymously, as a single volume in 1691. His other cookbook, ‘Nouvelle Instruction pour les Confitures, les Liqueurs et les Fruits’ appeared, also anonymously, in 1692, and reprinted several times in the eighteenth century. Massialot describes himself in his preface as "a cook who dares to qualify himself royal",... and it is not without cause, for the meals which he describes..."have all been served at court or in the houses of princes, and of people of the first rank." An innovation in Massialot's book was the alphabetical listing of recipes, a step toward the first culinary dictionary. Meringues make their first appearance under their familiar name with Massialot, who is also credited with Crême Brulée, in which the sugar topping was melted and burnt with a special dedicated red-hot fire iron. Another first with Massialot is two recipes in which chocolate is an ingredient: in a sauce for wigeon and in a sweet custard. Until then, chocolate was consumed solely as a drink. Massialot's works were translated into English as ‘The Court and Country Cook' 1702, and were often reprinted.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11103

Massialot. Francois - The very rare 1st English edition.
THe Court and Country Cook:
GIVING New and Plain Directions How to Order all manner of ENTERTAINMENTS, And the best sort of the Most exquisite a-la-mode Ragoo's Yogether with NEW INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONFECTIONERS: SHEWING How to Preserve all sorts of Fruits, as well dry as liquid: Also, How to make divers Sugar-works, and other fine Pieces of Curiosity; How to set out a Desert, or Banquet of Sweet-meats to the best advantage; And, How to prepare several sorts of Liquors, that are proper for every Season of the Year. A WORK more especially necessary for Stewards, Clerks of the Kitchen, Confectioners, Butlers and other Officers, and also of great use in private Families. Faithfully translated out of French into English by J.K. London: Printed by W.Onley, for A. and J.Churchill, at the Black Swan in Pater-noster-row, and M.Gillyflower in Westminster-hall. 1702.
FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. 12mo. 1fep. Title page with double lined border. [1] 5p Preface. 3p Table of Entertainments. 7p A Table. 14p A General Table. [1] 4p Preface to the Reader. 2p Contents of instructions to Confectioners. 1p Contents of instructions for Liquors. 8p A Table. [1] 8 Engraved plates of set tables. 1-276. 1-130 New Instructions for Confectioners (with 2 in-text engravings on P126 & 128). 1-20 New Instructions for Liquors. 2feps. Original full dark calf boards with fillet design very slightly rubbed on corners. Sympathetically re-backed with dark brown calf, gilt lines with brown label with gilt writing. In good condition with some worming up to the end of the tables. Overall a good copy of the very rare first edition.
- This is a translation into English of Massialot’s two famous books. Firstly his best; 'Nouveau cuisinier royal et bourgeois' first appeared in French, anonymously, as a single volume in 1691, and was expanded to two in 1712, then three volumes in a revised edition of 1733-34. His lesser cookbook, 'Nouvelle instruction pour les confitures', also appeared anonymously in French, in 1692. In an article online by Douglas Muster titled ‘The Origins and History of Meringue’, he informs – “François Massialot, the first chef of Louis XIV (1638 - 1715), published the recipe for a beaten and baked egg white and sugar confection he called meringue in a cook book published in 1692. In his book, Massialot dubs, what he calls “... a little sugar-work, very pretty and very easy ... can be made in a moment ...”. As Massialot’s book was translated and published into English by 1702, strangely, the citation in the Oxford English Dictionary for the first use of the term meringue in English is 1706. Although Massialot’s recipe for a baked beaten egg white and sugar confection was not the earliest, it appears it is embedded firmly in French and English and phonetic variations in other languages; Spain: merengue. Germany: meringe. Italy: meringa” - 8th century. Massialot also had the first printed recipe for Burnt Cream (Creme Brulee). This translation of Massialot's important books is among the scarcest and hardest to find. There are no translated copies recorded in any of the great collections that have come up for auction.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11120

May. Robert - An important 17th century cookery book
THe Accomplisht Cook,
OR THE Art and Mystery OF COOKERY Wherein the whole ART is revealed in a more easie and perfect Method, than hath been publisht in any language. Expert and ready Ways for the Dressing of all sorts of FLESH, FOWL, and FISH, with variety of SAUCES proper for each of them; and how to raise all manner of Pastes; the best Directions for all sorts of Kickshaws, also the Terms of CARVING and SEWING. An exact of all Dishes for all Seasons of the Year, with other Al-a-Mode Curiosities. The Fourth Edition, with large Additions throughout the whole work: besides two hundred Figures of several Forms for all manner of bak'd Meats, (either Flesh or Fish) as Pyes, Tarts, Custards, Cheesecakes and Florentines, placed in Tables, and directed to the Pages yhey pertain to. Approved by the Fifty Five years Experience and Industry of ROBERT MAY, in his Attendance of several parsons of great Honour. London, Printed for Obadiah Blagrave at the Bear in St. Pauls Church-Yard, near the Little North Door. 1678.
8vo. 1fep. [1] Frontispiece. Title page with single line border. 2pp. The Epistle Dedicatory. 4pp. The Preface. 3pp. Authors Life. 5pp. Triumphs and Trophies. 8pp. Of Carving and Sewing. 6pp. Bills of Fare. 1-461. 10pp. The Table. 1p. Books Printed. 1fep. The four plates are present; 2 have been expertly repaired without loss but with some browning at the folds. Internally very clean with numerous woodcut illustrations in the text. Contemporary full dark brown calf boards with nice patina. Sometime very sympathetically re-backed spine with raised bands, blind tooling and gilt lettering. A very nice copy and extremely scarce in the complete state.
- Other Editions are; 1660 (1st) 1665 (2nd) 1671 (3rd) of which there are 2 imprints. 1678 (3rd & 4th) 1685 (5th) As a Frontis there is a portrait of May with 'AEatis Suae 71, 1660' in the background and beneath are the lines "What! wouldst thou view but in one face -- all hospitalitie the race -- of those for the Gusto stand, -- whose tables a whole Ark comand -- of Nature's plentie, wouldst thou see -- this sight, peruse May's booke, tis hee. -- Ja. Parry. For Nathaniell Brooke, at the Angell in Cornhill: There are two poems at the beginning in May's honour, and a story of his life which mentions that he was the son of a cook and he was trained in France. This training accounts for his giving nine recipes for preparing snails and one for baking Frogs. In the Preface May says that "God and my own conscience would not permit me to bury these my experiences in the Grave" and that 'The Queens Closet Opened' was the only book comparable to his own. May's "Accomplisht Cook' is one of the great 17th century cookery books and one of the cornerstones of a good comprehensive cookery book collection. It is the record of a professional cook of that time. It is a well laid out book covering all aspects of the contemporary kitchen. In some editions there are two very large plates which unfold. This edition (and most others I have seen) has the two large plates separated into four. The great Stuart Classic.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10965

Menon. Louis Francois Henri de - In superb condition - as new.
The French Family Cook
BEING A complete System of French Cookery. Adapted to the Tables not only of the Opulent, but of Persons of moderate Fortune and Condition. CONTAINING Directions for choosing, dressing, and serving up all Sorts of Butcher Meat, Poultry, &c. The different Modes of making all kinds of Soups, Ragouts, Fricandeaus, Creams, Ratasias, Compots, Preserves, &c.&c. as well as a great Variety of cheap and elegant Side Dishes, calculated to grace a Table at a small Expence. Neccesary for Housekeepers, Butlers, Cooks, and all who are concerned in the Superintendence of a Family. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. LONDON: Printed for J. BELL, No. 148, Oxford Street, nearly opposite New Bond Street. M.DCC.XCIII.
FIRST ENGLISH EDITION 1793. 8vo. 2feps. Title Page. [1] 6pp Bills of Fare. (1)iv-xxiv Contents. (1)2-342. 2pp Advertisements. Fully bound in modern mid-brown calf, with 18th century style blind tooled panelled fillet on the boards with blind tooled line borders. Spine with raised bands and gilt lines, red label with gilt lettering. Internally extremely clean, as new. A rare item especially in this immaculate condition.
- Although no author is named on the title page, this is the first English translation of Menon's - La Cuisiniere Bourgeoise, originally written in French, and published in Paris, 1746. Maclean notes a 4th edition of 1796 with an altered main title, although sub-titles unchanged. Menon's books excite a lot of interest but nothing was known of him, till very recently; Sophie of Sophie Schneideman Rare Books had an early two volume set of 'La Cuisiniere Bourgeoise' dated 1752. This set was the author’s own copy, signed on the first page. It was the copy from the Chateau de Villiers library according to small pen inscriptions on each title and tiny stamps on the first blanks. The first blank of the first volume bears the remarkable history of the book, written in ink in 1875. The story it relates is that the first owner of the book was Mrs. Menon. It next passed to Margueritte Menon, her daughter, who was married to Claude Dodant. The next recepient of the set was Anne Dodant, wife of Henri de Villemenard. Their son Charles de Villemenard next owned it, there-after going to to Marie de Villemenard and finally to the author of the note, Villiers. The note is initialed and dated. Interesting; this is now the most up-to-date information on Menon. Perhaps with this little bit, further relevant information can be garnered in the future. His books in French and English are much sought after and constitute an important addition to any cookery book collection.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10940

Middleton. John - With a distinquished provenance
Five Hundred New Receipts
IN COOKERY, CONFECTIONARY, PASTRY, PRESERVING, CONSERVING, PICKLING; AND THE Several Branches of these ARTS necessary to be known by all good HOUSEWIVES. By JOHN MIDDLETON, Cook to his Grace the late Duke of Bolton. Revised and Recommended by Mr. HENRY HOWARD. LONDON: Printed for THO. ASTLEY, at the Rose against the North Door of St. Paul's. M DCC XXXIV.
FIRST & SOLE EDITION OF 1734. 8vo. Title Page. (i-iv) (1-249) 8pp 'Index' 1p 'Advertisement' Fully bound in contemporary light brown calf (sometime re-laid) with gilt lined borders. Spine with raised bands and faded gilt lines and a green label wit gilt lettering. Internally very clean - almost as new. The paper is unusually thick. With three bookplates, one of which is Claudia Q. Murphy's. A very scarce item.
- There appears to be two types of first issues. This one which is the large and thick papered version. A thinner paper issue also exists. The title page is featured in MacLean's 'Catalogue of Household and Cookery Books 1701-1800' She states that it is her favourite eighteenth century cookery book title page, among all others. It is very distinctly laid out with the printer 'Thomas Astley's' emblem of a Rose featured predominately. (The rose could also be mistaken for an artichoke!) The whole is surrounded by a two line border. This copy was sold, April 19th. 1926, at the auction rooms of Anderson Galleries, New York City, from Claudia Q. Murphy's cookery book collection. It went for $2.50. The sale also featured many other rare items for around the same prices. How one wishes 'time travel' was possible.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10949

Moffet (Muffett). Thomas - Very good condition.
Healths Improvement;
OR, Rules Comprizing and discovering The Nature, Method, and Manner of Preparing all sorts of FOOD Used in this NATION. (A single flat line) Wriiten by that ever Famous THOMAS MUFFETT, Doctor in PHYSICK: (A single flat line) Corrected and Enlarged BY CHRISTOFER BENNET, Doctor in Physick, and Fellow of the College of Physicians in London. (A single flat line) LONDON, Printed by Tho: Newcomb for Samuel Thomson, at the sign of the white Horse in Pauls Churchyard, 1655.
FIRST EDITION. Small 4to. 190 x 146 mm. 1fep. Title page. [2] Imprimatur page. (1)2-8 The Table. 2pages To the Reader. 1-296. 1 fep. Full dark brown sheep. Blind tooling to covers and spine. Gilt lettering and red leather label with gilt lines. A very light small water stain on upper corner of the title page and next four pages, not affecting text, otherwise, almost as new. Some occasional marginalia in a neat hand. Many bibliographical sources printed in margins. An exceptionally nice clean copy of a very scarce book.
- There exists a varied number of ways that Muffett (as spelled in this edition) is written. Cagle shows at least six ways. He also states Moffett is preferred by NUC, Mouffet by BMC, and Muffett by BNC. For the sake of filing them together on this site, I have used the later 'Moffet'. In an interesting historical thesis featuring Thomas Muffett, written and posted online by Christopher A. DeAngelo of Haverford College, PA, USA, who starts his dissertation with the famous poem:- “Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet / Eating her curds and whey / Along came a big spider / And sat down beside her / And frightened Miss Muffet away!”. Mr DeAngelo further states; "Thomas Muffet, the 16th century English natural philosopher, is best known today for the above nursery rhyme. He apparently wrote it about his daughter. Some people have even suggested that the poem refers to Muffet’s experiments on his daughter with spiders, which led to her being deathly afraid of them for the rest of her life. Despite the wide acceptance of these claims, there is no historical evidence to support any of them. Whether or not Muffett had anything to do with the actual writing of the poem, it is undeniably linked to him. The poem includes two concrete allusions to Muffett’s work. The spider is a direct reference to Muffett’s ‘Theatrum Insectorum’, in which the largest section deals with the classification of spiders. The curds and whey come straight out of ‘Healths Improvement’, where Muffett named curds and whey (both milk products) as essential to a good diet". Thomas Moffett was born in 1553 and died in 1604, so it must be assumed that the Christofer Bennet mentioned in the title page of ‘Healths Improvement’ who corrected and enlarged the book, was the first one to edit Muffett’s manuscript notes. One must then wonder how much he added and what exactly is Muffett’s original work. Whatever the truth, this is a very interesting work. It is also the first work to list British wild fowl and to comment on their migrations.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11232