Southgate.   Henry    
Things a Lady Would like to Know
CONCERNING DOMESTIC MANAGEMENT AND EXPENDITURE ARRANGED FOR DAILY REFERENCE WITH Hints regarding the Intellectual as well as the Physical Life BY HENRY SOUTHGATE AUTHOR OF 'MANY THOUGHTS OF MANY MINDS,' 'NOBLE THOUGHTS IN NOBLE LANGUAGE,' 'GONE BEFORE,' 'BRIDAL BOUQUET,' ETC. ETC. ETC. 'A judicious woman that is diligent and religious is the very soul of a house: she gives orders for the good things of this life, AND FOR THOSE TOO OF ETERNITY.' - Bishop Horne. 'Housekeeping and husbandry, if it be good, - Must love another, as cousins in blood; - The wife, too, must husband as well as the man, - Or farewell thy husbandry, do what you can.' Tusser. WILLIAM P. NIMMO: LONDON, 14 KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND; AND EDINBURGH. 1874.
FIRST EDITION. 217x155mm. 1fep. Half title. [2] Frontispiece. Engraved Title page. [1] Title page. [1] Dedication. Poem on verso. (1)8 Preface. (1)12-16 Prelude. (1)18-536. 537-543 Index. [1] 1fep. Lovely fresh brown and gilt embossed and tooled and blind tooled cloth boards and spine. Very clean inside. A very handsome copy of the very scarce first edition in the original state.
- Not much is known about Henry Southgate, other than he was an auctioneer in Fleet Street before he eventually turned author. His book is full of extensive Victorian-Christian advice to women that would make modern women's toes curl and cause unexpressed expletives to come to mind. Nevertheless an interesting book albeit of a totally different age. The BL holds five copies -- an 1890 copy, a 6th ed. - 1885; a 5th .- 1877; a 4th - 1876, and a 2nd - 1875;

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Antiquarian category
ref number: 11086

Soyer .   Alexis Benoit     - Very interesting & very scarce.
Memoirs of Soyer (by his late secretaries)
MEMOIRS OF ALEXIS SOYER; WITH Unpublished Receipts AND ODDS AND ENDS OF GASTRONOMY. COMPILED AND EDITED BY F. VOLANT & J.R. WARREN, HIS LATE SECTRETARIES. LONDON: W. KENT & CO., 51&52, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLIX.
FIRST AND SOLE EDITION. Front paste-down and endpaper with advertisements. [1] Half-title. [1] Title page. [1] 1pp. Preface. [1] 2pp. Introduction. 8pp. Contents. 1-286. 287-303 Addenda. [2] Back end-paper and paste-down with advertisements. Original boards and spine in lovely blue with nice illustrations and an illustrated portrait of Soyer on the front cover. Slightly rubbed but still very handsome. Internally as new with very light foxing on the half-title. A rare book especially in this fine original condition.
- Alexis Benoît Soyer (4 February 1810 – 5 August 1858) was a French chef who became the most famous cook in Victorian London. He also tried to alleviate the suffering of the Irish poor in the Great Irish Famine (1845-1849), and improve the food provided to British soldiers in the Crimean War. Soyer was born at Meaux-en-Brie on the Marne in France. His father had several jobs, one of them as a grocer. In 1821 Soyer was expelled from school and went to live with his elder brother Phillipe in Paris. He became an apprentice at G. Rignon restaurant in Paris. Later, in 1826 he moved to restaurant 'Boulevard des Italiens', where he became chief cook of the kitchens. By June 1830, Soyer was a second cook to Prince Polignac at the French Foreign Office. During the July revolution of 1830, Soyer fled to England and the next year joined the London household of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, where his brother Philippe already worked. Later, he worked for various other British notables, including the Duke of Sutherland, the Marquess of Waterford, William Lloyd of Aston Hall and the Marquess of Ailsa at Isleworth. In 1837, Soyer became chef de cuisine at the Reform Club in London. He designed (what was to become) the famous kitchens with Charles Barry at the newly built Club. He instituted many innovations, including cooking with gas, refrigerators cooled by cold water, and ovens with adjustable temperatures. His kitchens were so famous that they were opened for conducted tours. When Queen Victoria was crowned on 28 June 1838, he prepared a breakfast for 2,000 people in the Club. His salary was more than £1,000 a year. His Lamb Cutlets Reform are still on the menu of the eponymous club. His wife, Elizabeth Emma Jones born in London - 1813, achieved considerable popularity as a painter, chiefly of portraits. She died in 1842 following complications suffered in a premature childbirth brought on by a thunderstorm. Distraught, Soyer erected a monument to her at Kensal Green Cemetery. Soyer died on 5 August 1858. At the time he was designing a mobile cooking carriage for the Army. He was buried on 11 August in Kensal Green Cemetery. This little volume of his memoirs is a very loving testament by his very faithful secretaries. It is also an interesting read. A must for collectors or students of Soyer. As of August 2008, Soyer and his wife's impressive but weather-beaten monument has been granted public money for a complete renovation, to be started by the October of that same year. The plot holds four bodies. The first Emma Soyer (1842) the wife of Alexis, Alexis Soyer(1858) himself, then Francois Simonau (1859) the artist, stepfather to Emma Soyer. Then finally a Lady Watts (1929) who was Francois Simonau's grand niece.

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Antiquarian category
ref number: 11001

Soyer.   Alexis Benoit    
The Gastronomic Regenerator
THE Gastronomic Regenerator: A SIMPLIFIED AND ENTIRELY NEW SYSTEM OF COOKERY, WITH NEARLY TWO THOUSAND PRACTICAL RECEIPTS SUITED TO THE INCOME OF ALL CLASSES. ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS AND CORRECT AND MINUTE PLANS HOW KITCHENS OF EVERY SIZE, FROM THE KITCHEN OF A ROYAL PALACE TO THAT OF THE HUMBLE COTTAGE, ARE TO BE CONSTRUCTED AND FURNISHED. BY MONSIEUR A. SOYER, OF THE REFORM CLUB. FOURTH EDITION. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, &CO., STATIONERS' HALL COURT: AND SOLD BY JOHN OLLIVIER, PALL-MALL. 1847.
8vo. Pp. Frontispiece of 'Soyer' Title Page. Engraved picture of 'Heaven and Hell' 2pp 'List of Patrons' (i-xl) (1-720) (several engraved pictures throughout) 17pp 'Table of Contents' 1pp 'Advertisements' 24pp 'Madame Soyer' 1pp 'Times review. 2 fep. Bound in green half calf with dark green pebbled cloth boards and calf corners. Spine with elaborate gilt and blind tooling, gilt lettering, raised bands and a brown label with "Soyers Cookery" in gilt lettering. Internally very clean however some slight foxing on fep before title page and on frontispiece. A very good copy of a fairly scarce book.
- The illustrations are: The frontis drawn by Emma Soyer and engraved in steel by H.B. Hall and fifeteen wood engraved plates, two folding, including six plates illustrating elaborate dishes, and others showing the famous drawing of the Reform Club Kitchen, a table of a weathy family, Soyer's table at home, a drawing of two Bavarians by Emma Soyer and a self-portrait of Emma Soyer engraved in steel by H.B. Hall. There is also a folding plate on blue paper that is one of Soyer’s menus for a very special banquet at the Reform Club on July 3rd 1846 for 150 couverts that included the guest of honour - His Highness Ibrahim Pasha. It consisted of a massive 46 courses and on a spit in the dining room was a huge roasting Baron of Beef ala Anglaise. The dinner was a highlight of the Amir’s London visit. Four months earlier on March 22nd 1846, Ibrahim Pasha - His Highness, The Amir of Trans-Jordan came to London to sign a treaty with His Majesty The King in respect of the United Kingdom recognising the status of Trans- Jordan as a sovereign independent State. The menu was not in the first edition of 1846 but was in subsequent editions including this one here.

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Antiquarian category
ref number: 10941

Soyer.   Alexis Benoit    
The Pantropheon
OR, HISTORY OF FOOD, And its Preparation, FROM THE EARLIEST AGES OF THE WORLD. BY A. SOYER, AUTHOR OF " The Gastronomic Regenerator" and the " Modern Housewife, or Menagere, " &c. EMBELLISHED WITH FORTY-TWO STEEL PLATES, ILLUSTRATING THE GREATEST GASTRONOMIC MARVELS OF ANTIQUITY. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, &CO., STATIONERS' HALL COURT. MDCCCLIII. The Author reserves his right of Translating this Work.
FIRST & SOLE EDITION of 1853. 8vo. Frontispiece of Soyer. Title Page with some gilt lettering and gilt borders. (vii-xvi) Contents. [1-3] 4-474. p1. 'Advertisements' p1. 'Authors Note' 1 fep. 39 full page plus 2 double page Illustrations. The pastedown and end-papers are marbled. Bound in dark brown half calf with marble boards. Spine with raised bands, blind tooled square compartments, gilt lettering directly onto the spine. Very clean internally however very slight foxing, particularly to p.406-407. Overall a very nice copy of a very scarce book.
- There are serious doubts about the true author of 'The Panthropheon.' In Petits Propos Culinaires Vol: 29, p18. the late Mike McKirdy (a very knowledgeable antiquarian cookery book dealer, and co-owner with his wife Tess of 'Cooks Books') puts forward a compelling case for Adolphe Duhart-Fauvet to be awarded posthumous credit as the author. In the online Food Encyclopedia 'Practically Edible' it states -- "The Pantropheon is credited to Alexis, but it was in fact mostly written by a M. Adolphe Duhart-Fauvet. Soyer allowed his name to be used as the author, though he wrote only the last chapter." Mike McKirdy rightly suggests, Soyer's reputation does not rest alone on the Pantropheon, but due to his numerous and varied activities by which his huge fame grew, it is an interesting sidenote.

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Antiquarian category
ref number: 10955

Soyer.   Alexis Benoit    
Soyer's Shilling Cookery for the People.
A SHILLING COOKERY FOR THE PEOPLE EMBRACING AN ENTIRELY NEW SYSTEM OF PLAIN COOKERY AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY. BY ALEXIS SOYER AUTHOR OF "THE MODERN HOUSEWIFE" ETC. ETC. Seventieth Thousand. LONDON: GEO, ROUTELDGE & CO., FARRINGDON STREET. NEW YORK: 18, BEEKMAN STREET. 1855. The author of this work reserves the right of translating it.
Front paste-down and endpaper, recto and verso, with advertisements. [1] Frontispiece of Soyer with signature. Title page. [1] 1pp. Dedication to The Earl of Shaftsbury. [1] vii-viii. Preface. ix-x. Contents. 1-5 Introductory Letters. [1] 7-177. 178-182 Appendix. 1pp. Soyer's Kitchen for the Army. 184-190 Index. 1-6 Advertisements. 2pp Omission. 1-16. Advertisements. Back endpapers, recto and verso, and paste-down with advertisements. Covers and spine with original illustrations in very good condition. Very slightly rubbed. Internally very clean, almost as new. Back guttering slightly cracked but holding. A nice item especially in this original condition.
- During the first half of the nineteenth century, Alexis Soyer (1809-1858), a Frenchman, was the most famous cook and one of the most famous men in London. A combination of self-promotion, talent and energetic social conscience took him into many of the great events of his times. Through each phase of his meteoric career we can see a different aspect of nineteenth-century life, including the destruction of the English peasantry, the growth of London's private clubs, the Irish famine, the Great Exhibition and Britain's disastrous involvement in the Crimea. Soyer rose from obscure origins to early fame in his 20s, as private chef to England's nobility and then as chef de cuisine at London's new Reform Club. A combination of chef, inventor and cookbook author, Soyer designed a kitchen at the club so innovative that it became a tourist attraction, filled with his clever inventions: the first to use gas for stove-top cookery (preventing the carbon monoxide poisoning by charcoal cooking that had killed previous chefs such as Carême), to the drainer and the multi-egg poacher. He went on to open London's first real restaurant in conjunction with the Great Exhibition in 1851. A dashing figure (wearing clothes in flamboyant colours, cut on the bias, or in his parlance - 'ala zoug-zoug'), who never remarried after the tragic death of his first wife and child during childbirth, Soyer was linked to some of the most famous and beautiful actresses and dancers of the day. For all his flamboyance, Soyer was practical and big-hearted, writing cookbooks for the poor and designing his famous 'Magic Stove' (see image 5 below) and progressing the idea further by designing a very large stove for a model soup-kitchen which which he used in Ireland during the potato famine. In 1855 he went to the Crimea to take over the running of the kitchens in Florence Nightingale's hospital at Scutari, having first designed a new army cook-stove, a design that remained in use up until the first Gulf war. When he died in 1858, he was helping Florence Nightingale reform British army catering. Soyer's ‘Shilling Cookery for the People’ and his other famous cookery books, are a testament to this remarkable man who was determined to revolutionize the culinary world and who remains one of the greatest cooks of the nineteenth century. A Shilling Cookery for the People was first printed in 1855. Soyer, who agreed not to attach his name to any other cookery book at a similar or lower price, received £50 for the first edition of 10,000 copies. Within four months sales had reached 110,000, and by 1867 more than a quarter of a million copies had been sold. This edition states “seventieth thousand” on the title page which places it in the third month of the first printing of 1855.

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Antiquarian category
ref number: 11002

Soyer.   Alexis Benoit    
Soyer's Culinary Campaign
BEING HISTORICAL REMINISCENCES OF THE LATE WAR. WITH THE PLAIN ART OF COOKERY FOR MILITARY AND CIVIL INSTITUTIONS, THE ARMY, NAVY, PUBLIC, ETC. ETC. By ALEXIS SOYER, AUTHOR OF "THE MODERN HOUSEWIFE" "SHILLING COOKERY FOR THE PEOPLE" ETC. LONDON: G.ROUTELEDGE & CO., FARRINGDON STREET. NEW YORK: 18, BEEKHAM STREET. 1857. {The right of translation is reserved.]
FIRST AND SOLE EDITION. 1857. 1fep. [1] Frontispiece of an aged Soyer. Title page. [1] 1pp Dedication to Lord Panmure. [1] 1pp Preface. [1] 2pp Contents. An illustrated drawing of Soyer by H.G.Hine. [1] 1-593. [1] 3pp Index to Addenda. 2pp Advertisements. 1fep. Frontispiece tipped in with a strip of contemporary paper without affecting Soyer's portrait. The title page very lightly browned with slight chipping to edges not affecting the text. The H.G. Hine illustration has some very light foxing. Overall clean inside. Original red cloth binding with gilt pictorial vignette. Red cloth binding has been sympathetically re-laid but with dull gilt lettering. Overall slightly rubbed with a 1"sq. ink stain on the back cover. Tipped in is a B&W newspaper photograph of the last picture of Florenece Nightingale in 1910, lying in a rather plush bed looking out of the window. Also a very nice detailed illustrated drawing cut out from a 19th century magazine of "M. Soyer's Hospital Kitchen, at Scutari Barracks" A very interesting volume and a scarce item.
- On 2 February 1855, Soyer wrote to The Times offering to go to the Crimea at his own expense to advise on the cooking for the army there. He began by revising the diet sheets for the hospitals at Scutari and Constantinople. In two visits to Balaklava he, Florence Nightingale and the medical staff reorganised the provisioning of the hospitals; he also began to cook for the fourth division of the army. On 3 May 1857 he returned to London, and on 18 March 1858 he lectured at the United Service Institution on cooking for the army and navy. He also built a model kitchen at the Wellington Barracks, London. He died on 5 August 1858 at St. John's Wood, London and was buried on 11 August in Kensal Green cemetery. Soyer wrote many other cookery books including: Délassements Culinaires. (1845) The Gastronomic Regenerator (1846) Soyer's Charitable Cookery (1847) The Poorman's Regenerator (1848) The Modern Housewife of Menagere (1850) The Pantropheon; or, History of Food (1853) A Shilling Cookery Book for the People (1855) and lastly this volume, Soyer's Culinary Campaign (1857)

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Antiquarian category
ref number: 11009

Soyer.   Alexis Benoit     - A very rare signed first edition.
The Gastronomic Regenerator.
A SIMPLIFIED AND ENTIRELY NEW SYSTEM OF COOKERY, WITH NEARLY TWO THOUSAND PRACTICAL RECEIPTS SUITED TO THE INCOME OF ALL CLASSES. ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS AND CORRECT AND MINUTE PLANS HOW KITCHENS OF EVERY SIZE, FORM THE KITCHEN OF A ROYAL PALACE TO THAT OF THE HUMBLE COTTAGE, ARE TO EB CONSTRUCTED AND FURNISHED. BY MONSIEUR A. SOYER, OF THE REFORM CLUB. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., STATIONERS' HALL COURT: AND SOLD BY JOHN OLLIVIER, PALL-MALL. 1846.
FIRST EDITION. 233x153x64mm. Front paste-down with the bookplate of Bannerman of Elsick – Crimonmogate (one of the oldest Scottish families from Buchan). 1 new fep . Signed on the original yellow end-paper, laid down and bound in: 'To Mrs S.G. Harding with the Auteur Compliments A. Soyer'. [1] Verso frontispiece portrait of the author drawn by his wife Emma Soyer and engraved in steel by H.B. Hall. Title page. [1] 1p Dedication to the Duke of Cambridge. [1] 1p Engraved plate. [1]2p List of Patrons. (1)viii Preface. (1)x-xii Description of the work. (1)xiv-xx Soyer’s new mode of carving. xxi-xxiv How everything should be in cooking. 1-720.3 [1] (1)2-18 Table of contents. (1)2-6 Madame Soyer including a self-portrait of Emma Soyer engraved in steel by H.B.Steel. In total there are 16 wood engraved plates. Also included, the Kitchen of the Reform Club, a table of a wealthy family, Soyer’s table at home. Folded plates of ‘Young Bavarians’ by Emma Soyer, a dinner for His Highness Ibrahim Pacha on blue paper and an engraving of the Reform Club's new kitchens. Fully bound in the original rose coloured cloth with fine blind tooling back and front. The spine has been very sympathetically re-laid. Gilt lettering on the front board and spine. There is a small 1” long ink stain. The frontis of Soyer and Emma Soyer plates are slightly foxed. Otherwise internally very clean. Overall a very good copy in the original state and with the rare signature.
- In an online article Michael Garval, North Carolina State University writes perceptively of Alexis Soyer: --- Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about the extraordinary Alexis Soyer is that, while he too fashioned himself a man of letters, he would also transcend the constraints of this literary model and, far ahead of his time, prefigure the flamboyant personas of today's celebrity chefs. Soyer was born in France and raised there, first in Meaux-en-Brie, then in Paris. During the Revolution of 1830, he was working in the kitchen at the Foreign Office, it was attacked by angry insurgents. He ended up singing for his life: The cooks were driven from the palace, and in the flight two of Soyer's confrères were shot before his eyes, and he himself only escaped through his presence of mind, in beginning to sing 'la Marseillaise' et 'la Parisienne;' when he was in consequence carried off amid the cheers of the mob. (The memoirs of Volant and Warren - Soyer’s secretaries.) Soyer soon fled to England, where he would make his reputation, notably as Chef de Cuisine of London's prestigious Reform Club from 1837 to 1850. But his close call during the July Revolution remains an oddly revealing point of departure for his later, successful career. Casting him in the suggestive role of the faux-revolutionary, it already offers a glimpse at his general propensity for theatrics; his talent for rallying the public, and for making the most of unlikely opportunities; as well as his ambivalent class status and loyalty. A modestly-born opportunist, slaving away in service to the upper crust, and belting out Rouget de Lisle's or Casimir Delavigne's rabble-rousing lyrics at gunpoint, he appears at once a man of the people and lackey of the elite. Soyer was, in so many ways, a study in contradictions, "who drew the breath of his being from the French Romantics and who won the respect of Victorian England for his practical resourcefulness and powers of administration" (Helen Morris). He served refined food to the rich and powerful, and strained to ingratiate himself to them as well. But, amid the social and intellectual ferment over the problem of poverty, in the years surrounding the Revolution of 1848, he also put his skills to more humanitarian and egalitarian use. He toiled to feed Ireland's poor in the 1840s, or starving British soldiers in the Crimea a decade later, and published invaluable information to help the needy better feed themselves: first in a booklet, ‘The Poor Man's Regenerator’ (1847), from each copy of which he gave a penny to the poor; then more extensively in his ‘Shilling Cookery for the People’ (1854). A versatile, compassionate, and inventive cook, he was a prolific inventor as well—of bottled sauces and drinks, culinary gadgetry of all sorts, numerous innovations in the Reform Club's celebrated new kitchens, and many other things, including an excellent field stove, a variant of which, still called the Soyer stove, was used by the British army through the first Gulf War. Soyer was known for his exuberance, and eccentric style. A wit, prankster, raconteur, fine singer—and not just of revolutionary ballads—his first ambition was to be a comic actor, and for much of his life he frequented theatres and theatrical performers. A dapper Frenchman among drabber Victorians, he dressed as a Romantic dandy, in a style no longer the height of fashion at the height of his career in the 1840s and 50s—and did so even in the kitchen, eschewing the conventional chef's uniform. Beyond their rich embroidery, lavish silks, and extravagant colors, Soyer's clothes were characterized by their insistent cut on a bias, "à la zoug-zoug" in his own coinage, an idiosyncratic rendering of "zig-zag," the English phrase itself taking on the gallic flair of its inventor. Indeed, this predilection for diagonal lines was not limited to clothing designed and worn ‘studiously awry’, but rather part of a broader pattern. As biographer Helen Morris notes -- “Soyer's desire to be noticed, to be admired, above all to be extraordinary, grew ever more dominant. He tried not only to cook differently from everyone else, but to dress and talk and walk differently too. . . . he would not wear a single garment with either horizontal or perpendicular lines. His hats were specially built so that when clapped on at any angle they slanted in a coquettish way—in his own phrase, à la zoug-zoug. His coats had to be cut on the cross . . . . His visiting card . . . was not a rectangle but a parallelogram; so was his cigar-case, and even the handle of his cane slanted obliquely”. To this list could be added many things: advertisements for Soyer's products, like these for his Sultana's Sauce, one with the central bottle tilted diagonally through the copy, the other with the copy inside a parallelogrammic field recalling the shape of his carte de visite; a whimsical dish created in honor of the ballerina Fanny Cerrito with whispy diagonals spiraling round a conical base, surmounted by a dancing figurine on pointe atop a thunderbolt-like stand composed of alternating angles; "a zig-zag passage," which Morris calls a "true Soyer touch" leading into the model soup kitchen that Soyer designed in Dublin; his fanciful menu for a "Grand Supper Lucullusien "a'la Zoug-Zoug" (Volant and Warren); and, as we shall see, numerous diagonal elements in the portraits of Soyer that accompany his published work. As such varied examples suggest, à la zoug-zoug might best be understood as the central trope in Soyer's creative imagination, and in his dandified public persona, emblematic of his drive to distinguish himself —both to achieve distinction, and to do so by being different. • Soyer's position as chef of the Reform Club secured him some prominence but, in itself, does not explain the magnitude of his fame. His constant letters to various London papers, particularly the Times—touting his own accomplishments, promoting his latest schemes, weighing in on the questions of the day—helped keep him in the public eye. So too did the extensive marketing of his products, notably "Soyer's Sauce" as well as his several successful books on food and cookery. Combined with his flamboyant personal style, these forms of exposure made Soyer a favorite target of popular satire which, for better or worse, only increased his renown. He figured more often in the pages of Punch than many a Cabinet Minister.

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Antiquarian category
ref number: 11155

Soyer.   Aleis Benoit     - Signed by Soyer.
The Modern Housewife
OR MENAGERE. COMPRISING NEARLY ONE THOUSAND RECEIPTS FOR THE ECONOMIC AND JUDICIOUS PREPARATION OF EVERY MEAL OF THE DAY, AND THOSE FOR THE NURESERY AND SICK ROOM; WITH MINUTE DIRECTIONS FOR FAMILY MANAGEMENT IN ALL ITS BRANCHES. Illustrated with Engravings, INCLUDING THE MODERN HOUSEWIFE’S UNIQIUE KITCHEN, AND MAGIC STOVE. BY ALEXIS SOYER, AUTHOR OF “THE GASTRONOMIC REGNERATOR,” (REFORM CLUB.) EIGHTEENTH THOUSAND. LONDON; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL., & CO., STATIONERS’ HALL COURT; OLLIVIER, PALL MALL. 1850.
8vo. 1 modern fep. 2nd yellow coloured fep with Soyer’s signature. [1] Frontispiece, with a very light water-stain not affecting anything. Title page. The 3 pages have a small burn on the outer edge. ½” long 1/8” does deep not affect the text. Verso has a small introduction. A one page illustration of “The fair daughter of Albion”. [1] (1)iv-vi to Eloise. (1)vii Contents. (1)x-FBI Introduction. (1)2-427. [1] (1)430-445 Index. [1] )1_448-456 Press opinions. 2p Advertisements. 1 fep. A handsome full modern black calf binding with blind tooling on the boards. The spine with raised bands, blind tooling on bands and compartments. Apart from the very small burn mark on the first few pages this is a very clean desirable copy with the dedication signed in Soyer's shaky hand stating, "Presented by the author to his friend J.H. Nightingale - A. Soyer".
- I have researched the family background of his famous nurse and compatriot from the hospitals at Scutari - Florence Nightingale. I could not find anyone with the same name nor initials Soyer dedicated this book to - Intriguing!. This copy was published approx. one year after the first edition of 1849. Although Soyer was an extreme extrovert with an unrivalled penchant for self-publicity, signed copies of his numerous published cookery books seem to be quite scarce. The complexity of Soyer’s character and personality are well recorded. His professional undertakings were staggering and surprisingly varied, from the re-design of the Reform Kitchens to his much heralded efforts in Ireland during the famine, the crucial re-organisation of the hospital kitchens during the Crimean war that un-questionably saved many lives, and his many inventions - one still current in the 1990’s. His famously flamboyant but financially disastrous restaurant at the Great Exhibition and his marriage to Emma Jones the Victorian artist elevated his already significant stature. Designing a mobile cooking carriage for the army at the time of his death at 48 years old, one is amazed so much was packed into such a relatively short space of time. Truly, a memorable character and a remarkable life that is still being written about today.

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Information

Antiquarian category
ref number: 11167

Soyer.   Alexis Benoit     - The first edition in the original state.
The Modern Housewife
OR MENAGERE. COMPRISING NEARLY ONE THOUSAND RECEIPTS FOR THE ECONOMIC AND JUDICIOUS PREPARATION OF EVERY MEAL OF THE DAY, WITH THOSE OF THE NURSERY AND SICK ROOM, AND MINUTE DIRECTIONS FOR FAMILY MANAGEMENT IN ALL ITS BRANCHES. Illustrated With Engravings, INCLUDING THE MODERN HOUSEWIFE'S UNIQUE KITCHEN, AND MAGIC STOVE. BY ALEXIS SOYER, AUTHOR OF "THE GASTRONOMIC REGENERATOR," (REFORM CLUB). LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., STATIONERS' HALL COURT; OLLIVIER, PALL MALL. 1849.
FIRST EDITION. 8vo. 1fep. Frontispiece of Soyer. Title Page. [1] 1p Dedication to 'The fair daughters of Albion'. [1] (1)iv Contents. (1)vi-xii Introduction. 1-410. Opp. p393 Engraved picture of Soyers Magic Stove. Opp.396 Soyers Modern Housewife's Kitchen Apparatus. (1)412-426 Index. 427-430 Addenda. [1] Illustration of Soyers Sauce. 6p Advertisements for Soyer's products. 1fep. The text block is tight. Uniformly very lightly age browned through out. The little page a little sge darkened and the frontis with a little light foxing. Original light brown cloth covers and spine with the ornate blind tooling. The tooling on the spine has a little gilt and the blind tooling not as distinct as the covers. Rare in this good original condition.
- The blind tooled covers are typically Soyer. That is to say the tooling is designed on the bias and in Soyer's own words - a'la zoug zoug. He had this obsession with everything he designed or touched. His famously flamboyant rich colourful clothes were all cut on the bias - a'la zoug zoug, even his large bonnets worn at a rakish angle on the side of his head. Nothing came close to the dress conventions of the day. Altogether an unmistakable sight. This also reflected another strong aspect of his personality. That of self promotion. He obsessively wrote letters to the papers of the day explaining and aggrandising his endeavors, and was a prolific letter writer, maintaining relationships with many important personages he came into contact with, and in some way or another making sure it was publicly recorded in print. Despite this aspects of his personality he was a very bighearted man with a penchant for designing many good and important pieces of kitchen equipment. He had a very creative drive that had a sound pragmatic basis. This larger than life man died young but left a huge legacy that is still being examined and written about today.

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Information

Antiquarian category
ref number: 11206

Soyer.   Alexis Benoit     - In fine original condition.
Soyer's Culinary Campaign
BEING HISTORICAL REMINISCENCES OF THE LATE WAR. WITH THE PLAIN ART OF COOKERY FOR MILITARY AND CIVIL INSTITUTIONS, THE ARMY, NAVY, PUBLIC, ETC. ETC. By ALEXIS SOYER, AUTHOR OF "THE MODERN HOUSEWIFE" "SHILLING COOKERY FOR THE PEOPLE" ETC. LONDON: G.ROUTELEDGE & CO., FARRINGDON STREET. NEW YORK: 18, BEEKHAM STREET. 1857. {The right of translation is reserved.]
FIRST AND SOLE EDITION. 1857. 1fep a small tipped in inscribed letter to a mother from a soldier at the battle-front at Kadikoi. [1] Frontispiece of an aged Soyer. Title page with tissue guard. [1] 1pp Dedication to Lord Panmure. [1] 1pp Preface. On the verso of the preface is another tipped in note in the same script, relaying a story about Soyer. [1] 2pp Contents. An illustrated drawing of Soyer by H.G.Hine. [1] 1-593. [1] 1p Index to Addenda. 2pp Advertisements. 1fep. The frontispiece nice and clean. Overall very clean inside. Original blue cloth binding with bright gilt pictorial vignette on front cover and the original gilt device and text on the spine. Blind tooling also on both covers. A very interesting volume and a rare item in this condition.
- The story behind this book starts on 2 February 1855, when Soyer wrote to The Times offering to go to the Crimea at his own expense to advise on the cooking for the army there. He began by revising the diet sheets for the hospitals at Scutari and Constantinople. In two visits to Balaklava he, Florence Nightingale and the medical staff re-organised the provisioning of the hospitals; he also began to cook for the fourth division of the army. On 3 May 1857 he returned to London, and on 18 March 1858 he lectured at the United Service Institution on cooking for the army and navy. He also built a model kitchen at the Wellington Barracks, London. He died on 5 August 1858 at St. John's Wood, London and was buried on 11 August in Kensal Green cemetery. Soyer wrote many other cookery books including: Délassements Culinaires. (1845) The Gastronomic Regenerator (1846) Soyer's Charitable Cookery (1847) The Poorman's Regenerator (1848) The Modern Housewife of Menagere (1850) The Pantropheon; or, History of Food (1853) A Shilling Cookery Book for the People (1855) and lastly this volume, Soyer's Culinary Campaign (1857).

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Antiquarian category
ref number: 11242