NICHOLS.   JOHN     - Fascinating glimpses of very early Royal Households.
A COLLECTION OF ORDINANCES AND REGULATIONS
FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD, MADE IN DIVERS REIGNS. FROM KING EDWARD 111, TO KING WILLIAM AND QUEEN MARY. ALSO RECEIPTS IN ANCEINT COOKERY. ( A fine illustrated device of the Society of Antiquaries' shield.) PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES BY JOHN NICHOLS: SOLD BY MESSIEURS WHITE AND SON; ROBSON; LEIGH AND SOTHEBY; BROWNE; AND EGERTON'S. MDCCXC.
SOLE EDITION: 4to. 296x240 mm. 1fep. Title page. [1] iii Council of the Society. [1] v-xix Introduction. [1] xxi-xxii Table. (1) [1] 3- 473. 274-276 List of 214 dishes. 1fep. 1/4 dark brown leather spine and tips. Marbled boards. The text block is nice and clean
- A precursor organisation, the College of Antiquaries, was founded circa 1586, and functioned largely as a debating society until it was forbidden to do so by King James I in 1614. The first informal meeting of the modern Society of Antiquaries occurred at the Bear Tavern on The Strand on 5 December 1707. This early group sought a charter from Queen Anne for the study of British antiquities; its projected ventures included a series of 35 books to be issued. The formalisation of proceedings occurred in 1717 with the first minutes at the Mitre Tavern, Fleet Street, dated 1 January 1718. Those attending these meetings examined objects, gave talks, and discussed theories of historical sites. Reports on the dilapidation of significant buildings were also produced. The society was also concerned with the topics of heraldry, genealogy, and historical documents. In 1751, a successful application for a charter of incorporation was sought and granted. The society began to gather large collections of manuscripts, paintings, and artefacts. The acquisition of a large group of important paintings in 1828 preceded the establishment of the National Portrait Gallery by some 30 years. During the reign of Henry V111 a new set of rules were passed in 1526 which are now known as the Ordinances of Eltham and presented in public as a serious attempt to reform the Tudor Court. They set out in detail how the court should be organised and run. In particular, they attempt to prevent members of the court and its servants from profiting from their positions. The Ordinances even attempt to control what happens to the remnant of spent candles as a way of ensuring control of expenditure on the court. They also make a point of seeking to exclude specific groups from the court, including cripples, beggars and boys. Also recorded is the diet of Henry VIII and his courtiers. With up to 1000 people attending the monarch. All aspects of life had to be strictly controlled, these included making provision about who could enter the King's bed chamber to who could keep dogs and when you could play cards. These rules were published in a series of ordinances and regulations, covering pages 137-241 and onwards. Amongst the incredibly detailed instructions are also accounts of what was eaten each day by the King and different levels of courtiers. As can be seen from these extracts, bread formed a major part of the diet of the highest and lowliest members of the court.

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Antiquarian category
ref number: 11069

Oxford.   Arnold Whitaker     - with a tipped-in letter signed by Oxford
Notes from a Collector's Catalogue
With a Bibliography of English Cookery Books, By A. W. Oxford. London: Messrs. JOHN and EDWARD BUMPUS. Limited, 350, Oxford Street. 1909.
FIRST EDITION 1909. On the first blank, a tipped in one page letter written and signed by Oxford. [1] Title page. [1] 1p Contents. [1] (1)2-116. 1p with printers info. [1] 2 feps. With original very clean grey cardboard boards with black ink title on the front. A cream cloth spine lightly browned. Half the original label missing. Internally a very clean, tight binding and untrimmed. Overall a very good copy in the original state. A very scarce item especially in this condition and with the signed letter.
- Dr. Arnold Whitaker Oxford was born at Keynsham in 1854, and graduated from Oxford University. He died on May. 30 1947 at the age of 93 after enjoying a long medical career. At one time he was resident at Charing Cross Hospital. He wrote quite a few books. Some on Freemasons but the better known on cookery. Oxford was an inveterate and odd collector. He started with playing cards and their accessories, and among many other collecting fevers he amassed collections of old silver, stay busks, knitting needle sheaths, domestic implements, seals and writing materials. diaries and engravings, religious objects, Egyptian antiquities, calendars, clocks and finally the items that fired him up the most: cookery books. He wrote two cookery bibliographies that are much used by collectors. This one -- 'Notes from a Collectors Catalogue' and the more comprehensive ' English Cookery Books to the Year 1850' On page 40 of the 'Notes from a Collectors Catalogue' there is a very good list of English books on Cookery and Carving up to the year 1699. Listing not only Oxford's collection, but also the holdings of the Bodleian, the British Museum, and the Cambridge and Patent Office libraries. At the back is also an STC of Cookery Books from 1700. The handwritten letter by Oxford is in his small 'hard to read' style states (as far as I can make out) -- 'July 2.19.08 Dear Sir I hear you bought lot 68 at Sothebys on June 25. 1908. I should be most obliged if you would let me see 'The Court & Country Cook' at home if ------. I cant come up and see it myself as I have been in bed for weeks. I am writing to present you with a book of mine as you will see from it on page 97 ----- I must want the ----. Y faithfully a.w. oxford.' (then written & underlined in another hand) --'Entered 3.7.09'. The cookbook 'The Court & Country Cook' referred to above by Oxford can be seen on this site - item #11120. This is a translation into English of Massialot’s two famous books, 'Nouveau cuisinier royal et bourgeois' and 'Nouvelle instruction pour les confitures'. As this book was printed in 1702. One wonders whether Oxford had already seen a copy and wanted to re-check some details for his Collector's Catalogue of 1909, or this was his first sight of a very rare book.

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Modern category
ref number: 11093

MACKENZIE   COLIN     - Very scarce.
Five Thousand Receipts.
IN ALL THE USEFUL AND DOMESTIC ARTS, CONSTITUTING A COMPLETE AND UNIVERSAL Practical Library, AND OPERATIVE CYCLOPAEDIA. - Mr Hobbes, of Malmesbury, thought the accumulation of details a hindrance of learning; and used to wish all the Books in the world were embarked in one ship, and he might be permitted to bore a hole in its bottom. He was right in one sense; for the Disquisitions and Treatises with which our Libraries are filled, are ofter merely the husks and shells of knowledge; but it would be to be wished, that before he were permitted to bore his hole, some literary analysts should select all the facts, Recipes, and Prescriptions, useful to Man, and condense them into a portable Volume. LOCKE. By COLIN MACKENZIE, AUTHOR OF ONE THOUSAND EXPERIMENTS IN MANUFACTURES AND CHEMISTRY. A NEW EDITION. LONDON: SHERWOOD, GILBERT, AND PIPER, PATERNOSTER-ROW; AND TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY. 1834. Price 10s 6d. Bound.
Thick 143 x 150mm. 1 fep. Title page. [1] (1)iv Preface. (1)6 – 798. (1)800 – 827 Index. 1p Advertisements. (1) [1] (1)4 – 22 [2] Catalogue of Modern Books. 1fep. Original full brown calf boards with gilt writing on the front. A little rubbed. Re-backed spine in modern mid-tan calf with raised bands, gilt lines and blind tooling. Black label with gilt writing. Internally quite clean. A nice copy of a very scarce book.
- Nothing is recorded nor known about MacKenzie. Oxford appears to have a first edition of 1823 and cites a third of 1824. He also states that there was reprints in America as late as 1870. Bitting has a fourth American edition of 1829 and cites a Philadelphia edition of 1866.

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Information

Antiquarian category
ref number: 11118

Dods.   Matilda Lees     - An original copy with silver cover.
Handbook of Practical Cookery
New and enlarged edition In which special prominence is given to the preparing of New Cakes, Jellies, etc; to the very simple recipes for Cottage Cookery; also to various modes of preparing food for the Sickroom BY MATILDA LEES DODOS Diplomee of the S.K. School of Cookery With an Introduction on the Philosophy of Cookery London: EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE (BIBLE WAREHOUSE). Ltd., 33, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. Edinburgh and New York 1906
44 x 54 mm. Marbled front paste-down but no fep. Half-title. [1] Title Page. [1] Preface v-xii. Contents xiii-xiv. [1] p34. Diagrams of Meat cuts (with the engraving on the recto with the versos blank) [1] p51 Plates of made dishes with blank versos. [1] xvii-Ixix Directions for Carving and Philosophy of Cooking. [1] Pp 1+2-795. [1] 1+798-836. [1] Marbled fep and paste-down. The stitching in the text block is split in the middle but holding well and not affecting the spine. The spine has a small split on the bottom left seam but holding and not affecting anything. All pages and text on very fine India paper. Original full red cloth covered in bright gilt lines, design and lettering. With a small dark stain on the back covers, but not detracting. The front cover has a beautiful silver cover attached of a old fashioned camp cooking pot hung from a tripod over an open fire. Very slightly rubbed edges to covers and ends of spine. Overall a very nice bright copy with the fine very scarce silver front cover .
- Copies in this bright red cover are much scarcer than the others bound in maroon and black. There are also copies bound in light emerald green that are also very rare. The first edition of Lees Dods's work appeared in 1881. All copies of this miniature edition are charming and this one has a rare original red cover. Louis Bondy in his fascinating book on the history of miniatures describes this as "the most extensive cookery book in miniature" (Louis Bondy, Miniature Books. p.139) The red cover is very scarce but with the finely crafted embossed cover attached it becomes altogether very rare and collectable.

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Information

Modern category
ref number: 11119

Nignon.   Edouard     - in fine original state.
Les Plaisirs de la Table
Ou, sous une forme nouvelle, l'Auteur a devoile maints delicieux secrets et recettes de bonne Cuisine, transcrit les precieux et de fins Gourmets fameux et de fins Gourmets, conseillers aimables et surs en l'Art du Bein Manger PREFACE DE M. ROBERT DE FLERS de l'Academie Francaise (A prinetr's device of a sheep) DESSINS de P.F. GRIGNON. A.PARIS CHEZ L'AUTEUR et chez J. MEYNAIL, Libraire, 30, Boulevard HAUSSMANN OUVRAGE DEPOSE.
FIRST EDITION. Circa 1926. 4to. Paste-down and fep with red and blue print design. 1fep. Half title. [1] 1p Dedication to A. Antonin Careme by Nignon. Frontispiece is a small red illustration. Title page.[1] (1)viii-xiv Preface by Robert de Flers. 1p Chapitre Premier. [1] (1)18-326. 1p Journal. [1] (1)329-333 Table des Matieres. 1p Printer's device. Last fep and paste-down with red and blue print design. Text in black with many very fine red illustrations throughout. The start of each chapter is a full page illustrated design in red. Full original blue and crimson paper cover in very good slightly faded condition. The covers supported by strong cardboard inserts. Internally very clean with pages slightly age browned due to the paper quality used at that time. Edges untrimmed. A nice original copy of an unusually well designed cookery book in Art Nouveau style.
- Edouard Nignon was born, one of eight siblings, in Nantes on November 9, 1865. At the very tender age of ten he was apprenticed to the restaurant Cambronne in Nantes, October 9, 1874. A year later, October 20, 1875, he entered the restaurant Monier, the best in the town. Some women there taught him to read and write in the style of the area. Later he worked in some of the largest Paris houses with the greatest chefs such as the Cafe Anglais and The Paillard, gaining a classic apprenticeship and elsewhere; Asst. Chef saucier at Chez Bignon. Chef saucier at Chez Voisin. Chef entremettier à l'exposition de 1889. Chef rôtisseur at La Lapérouse. Chef des cuisines at Marivaux. His many experiences and positions gave him access to the highest levels of society and a growing reputation. Nignon emigrated to Austria as Chef to the Emperor of Austria and then to Russia where he served the Czar and at L'Ermitage in Moscow and commanded a Kitchen brigade of 120 chefs. He also travelled to Britain where he held the post from 1894 - 1901 of Maitre Chef des Cuisiniers at Claridges Hotel in London. At this time another great Chef - Escoffier, was working at the Savoy and then the Carlton Hotel, Pall Mall. It is rumoured in print that there was a professional rivalry between the two chefs. The rumours indicate that many thought Nignon to be the more creative and precise craftsman. Nignon made his fortune and returned to Paris where he bought a house in 1908 and created the Restaurant Larue in the Place de la Madeleine. It became the most elegant in Paris, its customers were the finest in the world; artists, poets, writers, government ministers, stars of the stage, kings and princes, also cooking for President Woodrow Wilson. One client, le Marquis de Rouge, a prominent gourmet, once told Nignon that he liked and wanted a pink duck dish. Nignon created the famous ‘Caneton à la presse’, serving it with a bottle of Musigny 1884. He is also credited with creating the dish 'Homard à l'Américaine'. Nignon was also a successful business-man. Sacha Guitry, who knew him well, later wrote in the preface to one of his many books; ‘He always consulted with profit’. For the last years at his restaurant Nignon traded the chef’s toque for the Maitre d’ Hotel’s black uniform. His fame grew and grew. Observed going from table to table, advising a sole, offering a partridge, suggesting a dessert or a wine from his famous cellar, it was said that all Paris dined at his table. Nignon retired in 1921 and returned to Britain, where he died in 1934. (one year before Escoffier expired). Besides ‘Les Plaisirs de la Table’, he wrote two other great books: ‘L’Heptameron des Gourmets, ou, Les Delices de la Cuisine Francaise’, and ‘Eloges de la Cuisine Francaise’.

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Information

Modern category
ref number: 11134

Farley.   John    
The London Art of Cookery,
AND HOUSEKEEPER'S COMPLETE ASSISTANT. On a NEW PLAN. Made Plain and Easy to the Understanding of every HOUSEKEEPER, COOK, and SERVANT in the Kingdom. CONTAINING, Proper Directions for the Choice of all Kinds of Provisions. Roasting and Boiling all Sorts of Butchers Meat, Poultry, Game, and Fish. Sauces for every Occasion. Soups, Broths, Stews, and Hashes. Made Dishes, Ragouts, and Fricasses. All Sorts of Pies and Puddings. Proper Instruction for dressing of Fruits and Vegetables. Pickling, Potting, and Preserving. The Prepeartion of Hams, Tongues, and Bacon. The whole Art of Confectionary. The Preparation of Sugars. Tarts, Puffs, and Pastries. Cakes, Custards, Jams, and Jellies. Drying, Candying, and Preserving Fruits, &c. Made Wines, Cordial Waters, and Malt Liquors. To which is added, AN APPENDIX, Cotaining Considerations on Culinary Poisins; Directions for making Broths, &c. for the Sick; a List of Things in Season in the different Months of the Year; Marketing Tables, &c. &c. Embeliched with A HEAD of the AUTHOR, and a Bill of Fare for every Month in the Year, elegantly engraved on Thirteen Copper-plates. By JOHN FARLEY, PRINCIPAL COOK AT THE LONDON TAVERN. LONDON: The THIRD EDITION, With the Addition of upwards of One Hundred and Fifty new and elegant Receipts in the various Branches of Cookery. Printed for J. SCATCHERED and J. WHITTAKER, No.12, B. LAW, No. 13 Ava Maria Lane; and G. and T. WILKIE, St. Paul’s Church-Yard. 1785. [Price Six Shillings Bound.]
8vo. 1fep. [1] Engraved Frontispiece of Farley - Publish'd Jan 1. 1785 ---. Title page. [1] 4p Preface with facsimile signature of Farley. 2p Advertisement to the third edition. 24p Contents. 12 engraved plates of Bills of Fare with the back blank. (1)2-444. 445-448 Marketing Table. 1fep. Full mid-brown contemporary calf with a nice patina. The spine with raised bands and panels gilt lines and gilt writing. Oil stains to p255-264. Very slightly age browned, otherwise very nice internally. A good copy of an early edition.
- Farley's place of employment, The London Tavern in Bishopsgate Street was the largest restaurant and banqueting facility in the City. It held functions for up to two thousand, five hundred people at a sitting. In PPC 42 & 43, Fiona Lucraft lays out a very comprehensive and compelling piece of research that rightly condemns Farley of devious and outright plagiarism and proves that most of The London Art of Cookery has been taken straight from the cookery books of Hannah Glasse and Elizabeth Raffald. Nevertheless one gets a sense from Farley’s book that he was a very good professional cook proud of his high standards. He is one of the first English cooks to express (so typical of the French for more than a century) a continuing need for progress and improvement in the culinary arts. Farley in his introduction states with some pride that -- 'Cookery, like every other Art, has been moving forward to Perfection by slow Degrees; and, though the Cooks of the last Century boasted of having brought it to the highest Pitch it could bear, yet we find that daily improvements are still making therein, which must be the Case of every Art depending on Fancy and Taste: ---’ Farley appears to have very high standards of cleanliness and safety, repeatedly stressing in his book, the need for saucepans to be both clean and well tinned and he has an appendix on ‘culinary poisons’, particularly the risk of copper poisoning, which can happen when the tin wears down and exposes the copper underneath to foodstuffs. Whatever Fiona Lutcraft's excellent article in PPC proves, this is still an exceptional cookery book and gives a very good idea of the foods and dishes available at a highly reputed establishment.

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Information

Antiquarian category
ref number: 11136

Secundus.   Dick Humelbergius    
Apician Morsels;
OR, TALES OF THE TABLE, KITCHEN, AND LARDER: CONTAINING A NEW AND IMPROVED CODE OF EATICS; SELECT EPICUREAN PRECEPTS; NUTRITIVE MAXIMS, REFLECTIONS, ANECDOTES, &C. ILLUSTRATING THE VERITABLE SCIENCE OF THE MOUTH; WHICH INCLUDES THE ART OF NEVER BREAKFASTING AT HOME, AND ALWAYS DINING ABROAD. BY DICK HUMELBERGIUS SECUNDUS. "O vow qui stomach Iaboatis, accurate, et ego vow restaurabo!" Vide p.106. "Always breakfast as if you did not intend to dine; and dine as if you had not broken your fast." -- Code Gourmand. New York: PRINTED BY J. & J. HARPER, 82 CLIFF-ST. SOLD BY COLLINS AND HANNAY, COLLINS AND CO., G. AND C. AND H. CAR-VILL., W. B. GILLEY , E. BLISS, AND O. A. ROORBACH; --PHILADELPHIA. CAREY, LEA, AND CARRY, J. GRIGG, TOWAR AND HOGAN, U. HUNT, R.. COWPERTHWAITE, E. LITTELL, AND BROTHERS, AND M'CARTY AND DAVIS; -- ALBANY, O. STEELE. 1829.
12mo. 190X116mm. Paste-down and end-paper marbled paper. [1] 1fep. [1] Frontispiece of Mr Eatingtown. Title page. [1] 2p Contents, xxv chapters. [2]9-212. 1fep. [1] End-paper and paste-down marbled paper. Half tan calf with black and tan speckled paper boards with nice patina. the spine has raised bands, gilt lines and gilt tooled devices. with a red label and gilt lettering. Internally very lightly age-browned throughout. A scarce book.
- Dick Hemelbergius Secundus, was actually a sixteen-century annotator named Gabriel Hummelberger making a comeback in this tome of 1829. In 'The Literary Gazette and Journal' for the year 1829, in the book review section, the critic pans the author of 'Apician Morsels' for his performance as not equal to that of a true man. He further takes an arrogant broadside at the author and other scribes of the day, for their use of French or other languages, which they do not understand. He goes further, boldly stating --- "Their style is as full of French and other phrases as a plum pudding is of plums and currants -- you cannot tell which is the radical tongue or the principal ingredient. It might be supposed that the English was copious enough to express all the ideas of the learned, imaginative, and highly gifted, and infinitely too copious to be needed by these literary shrimps, who have neither original thought nor ideas of any kind to express; ----- of these faults our Apician scribe affords us plenty of specimens". Strong stuff indeed. Apician Morsels; or Tales of the Table, Kitchen and Larder has been attributed to the Gothic novelist William Beckford, though others suspect the hand of Richard Chenevix, reviewer for the Edinburgh Review, (which may account for the venom in the critique of The Literary Gazette). 'Apician Morsels' announces "a New and Improved Code of Eatics," with "Select Epicurean Precepts," and "Nutritive Maxims, Reflections, Anecdotes . . . illustrating the Veritable Science of the Mouth." In addition to original essays on various aspects of cookery and good-living, Humelbergius takes his "Nutritive Varieties" (without attribution) from Grimod, along with other treatments of meals, invitations, and bonne chère.

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Information

Antiquarian category
ref number: 11154

Manuscript Receipts   - De Capell Brooke Family     - a distinguished provenance.
Great Oakley Hall, Northamptonshire.
One 19th Century vellum bound volume.
204x165mm. Marbled paste-downs and end-papers. Loose first page which is a two column index of 73 recipes. First sixty pages are written recipes in black and brown ink in predominately two neat hands in an early Victorian script. 24 pages of tipped-in assorted recipes. 68 blank pages. At the back 22 pages of medicinal recipes. Two recipes are dated, #73, Stewed Rabbit - 1855 Jan. 22nd Oakley. and the last written recipe for Semolina Ghnocchi inscribed Mrs Symond. June 1894, - Internally quite clean, Fully bound in age dusted vellum with a 1 inch brown stain on the front cover. The hinge and guttering are cracked but holding well. Altogether a very interesting document with fine provenance.
- This manuscript recipe book belonged to Catherine De Capell Brooke of Great Oakley Hall, Great Oakley, Northamptonshire. The Hall has been the De Capell Brooke's ancestral home for over five centuries. The Brookes' are perhaps the most ancient family in Northamptonshire still living in their ancestral home. In 1472 William Brooke purchased a manor in the small village of Great Oakley . It is situated approx. 2 miles from Corby and 5 miles from Kettering. Much of Great Oakley has been in ownership of the Brooke Family since then. The present lord of the manor is Hugh de Capell Brooke, who lives with his family in Great Oakley Hall, which was extensively renovated in the 1960s. Although in recent years extensive new housing estates have been built at the top end of the village, a preservation order exists on all trees and stone houses in the village ensuring that some of the character of Great Oakley remains for future generations. Thomas Brooke is believed to have began building Great Oakley Hall in 1555. After the death in 1762 of Wheeler Brooke the estates descended to Mary Supple whose husband took the name of Brooke. Their son, Richard De Capell Brooke, Bart: was made a Baronet in June 20th 1803. His first son, Sir Arthur, the 2nd Baronet was a famous traveller and author. (died 1858). The second son, Sir William De Capell Brooke, Bart: (born 1801) succeeded to his brother's title and estate in 1858. A Barrister at Law, he died in 1897. In 23.4.1829 Sir William married Catherine [nee Watson] De Capell Brooke (born 1802), daughter of Lewis Thomas Watson, the 2nd Lord Sones. It appears Catherine started this cookery manuscript after she got married, and it further appears it was passed on within the family after her death on 24.11.1888. With the last date of 1894 recorded, we may assume it was written and in use from, circa 1829 - 1894. Considering these kind of items are handled fairly often, and used in a relatively hazardous and oily environment it has survived well. It is altogether a handsome and well maintained household book with interesting recipes and advice. Many come up for sale but without clear provenance. The dealer from whom I purchased this item also owned other documents and ephemera from Great Oakley. He also did most of the research on Catherine De Capell Brooke.

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Information

Antiquarian category
ref number: 11158

Dods.   Mistress Margaret    
THE COOK AND HOUSEWIFE'S MANUAL:
A PRACTICAL SYSTEM OF MODERN DOMESTIC COOKERY AND FAMILY MANAGEMENT; CONTAINING A COMPENDIUM, OF FRENCH COOKERY, AND OF FASHIONABLE CONFECTIONARY, PREPARATIONS FOR INVALIDS AND CONVALESCENTS, A SELECTION OF CHEAP DISHES, AND NUMEROUS USEFUL MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS IN THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF DOMESTIC ECONOMY. By MISTRESS MARGARET DODS, OF THE CLEIKUM INN, ST RONAN'S. Eleventh Edition, Revised. EDINBURGH: OLIVER AND BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. 1862.
186 x 124 mm. Paste-down and end-paper with advertisements. [1] Half title. [1] Title page. [1] 1p Advertisement. [1] (1)8-12 Advertisement. (1)14-15 Contents. [1] (1)18-598. (1)600-624 Index. [1] End-paper and paste-down with advertisements. Numerous woodcuts of carving in the text. Original dark green cloth boards with blind tooling and very slightly bumped tips. Sympathetically relaid original spine with gilt tooling, still in good condition. The bottom line of gilt with minimal flaking. Internally in very good condition. A wonderful copy.
- Mrs. Christina Jane Johnstone brought out her well-known contribution to the cookery section of literature under the title of “The Cook and Housewife’s Manual" (first edition 1926). Hiding her authorship behind the pseudonym of Mistress Margaret Dods, who was the landlady in Sir Walter Scott’s tale of 'St. Ronan’s Well' published three years before in 1824. Mrs. Johnstone imparted a novel feature to her book by investing it with a fictitious history and origin. We learn how Peregrine Touchwood, Esq, the ‘Cleikum Nabob’ sought to cure his ennui and hypochondria by studying Apician mysteries; concluding with a syllabus of thirteen lectures on cookery, which were delivered by the aforesaid Nabob. Progressing further one comes to the main part of the manual, which can be readily distinguished from an ordinary one by a literary tone, which certainly betrays a little of the influence of Scott himself. Although this is a Scottish production, with all the smells and flavours of a good Scotch broth, it is not so narrow in its aims. The title page gives a London publisher as well as one from the ‘Auld Reekie'. Mrs. Johnstone has benevolently adapted her labours to both her countrywomen as well as the un-worthy Sassenachs 'doon sooth'. The Cleikum Inn was a hitherto unnamed cotter’s house belonging to the Benarty estate, which was acquired by Lady Scott in 1825 as a lodge at the west entrance to Lochore estate and thereafter given the name of ‘Cleikum Inn’ by Sir Walter Scott. Mistress Dods was the landlady of the Inn near Peebles which hosted the gatherings of the Cleikum Club. The aim of the club, which counted Sir Walter Scott among its members, was to celebrate Scottish national literature. They certainly were among the first organisations to celebrate a Burns' Night. The mighty Mistress Dods was a superb cook and rigorous task master. Staff and guests trembled before her! We assume her book 'The Cook's and Housewife's Manual' was meant to have the same iconic relationship to Scottish cuisine as that of Mrs Beetons’ households south of the border. Surely Mrs Johnstone’s efforts are echoed in the last paragraph of page 16, where we are reminded not to be so impressed by Mr Touchwood’s eloquence as to lose sight of the fact that this is after all; a cookery book, albeit a little unusual!

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Information

Antiquarian category
ref number: 11160

Grants of St. James.       - with a rare Elizabeth David pamphlet.
A Gateway to Wine.
A promotional book, published 1964, by this large wine merchant of London SW1, with special recipes from Elizabeth David. Also enclosed is a very rare 4 page pamphlet of E.D’s recipes and menus for Lambert & Butler of Drury Lane.
4to. Paste-down and end-paper with a photo of sculpture of Bacchus. [1] 1p Forward. Verso 1p Contents. 3-51. (1) Colour photo of a Roast Pork. 53-63 E.D’s recipes. 64-65 Spirits, Aperitifs, Bitters and Liqueurs. 66-71 Supplementary Glossary. 72-76 Index. [1] End-paper and paste-down with a photo of sculpture of Bacchus. Many coloured photos in-text. Fully bound in very clean straw coloured cloth boards with gilt writing and small gilt device of a sedan chair on the front board. Gilt lettering on the spine. Internally very clean; as new. The 4 page pamphlet from Lambert and Butler is cream coloured with black text, and very clean. The recipes are on pages 2-4. Two rare items.
- The book has five main parts. An introduction, a description of the many wine-producing countries of the world and their wines, a guide with recipes on the use of wine in cooking; a supplementary glossary of wines and wine terms and an index. A nice promotional item made much more interesting and desirable with the Elizabeth David recipes and pamphlet from Lambert and Butler, makers of the famous Henry Clay cigars. Its quite possible the pamphlet may have originally been given with the book, All the 24 recipes each have two recommended wines. An interesting read.

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Information

Ephemera category
ref number: 11163