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Woolley. Hannah
The Accomplish'd LADIES DELIGHT
IN Preserving, Physick, Beautifying, and Cookery. CONTAINING 1. The ART of PRESERVING, and CANDYING Fruits and Flowers, and the making of all sorts of Conserves, Syrups, and Jellies. 11. The PHYSICAL CABINET, Or Excellent Receipts in Physick and Chirurgery, Together with some Rare Beautifying Waters, to adorn and add loveliness to the Face and Body: And also some New and Excellent Secrets and Experiments in the ART of ANGLING. 111. The Compleat COOKS GUIDE, Or, directions for dressing all sorts of Flesh, Fowl and Fish, both in the English and French Mode, with all Sauces and Sallets; and the making Pyes, Pasties, Tarts, and Custards, with the Forms and Shapes of many of them. The Fifth Edition Enlarged. LONDON, Printed for Benjamin Harris, at the Stationers Arms and Anchor, in the Piazza, at the Royal Exchange in Cornhill, 1685.
12mo. 2 modern fep [1]. Engraved frontispiece of the author and engraved Title-page of four household scenes. [1] 2nd Title page. 2 pages of Epistle Directory signed T.P. PART 1- The Art of Preserving 1-65. PART 2- Excellent Receipts in Physick and Chirurgery 66-105 with Frontispiece illustration of couple fishing (page 106). The Art of Angling. 107-126 with 1p illustration of fish, pages 115 & [1]. PART 3- The Complete Cooks Guide 127-196 with 2 pages of illustrations of Pye shapes. p197 - 199 Terms of Carving. p200 - 204 Bills of Fare. (1) To the Reader, signed BH. p206 - 208 A Great Feast, 12p of 'The Table'. 2 modern fep. Half tan calf with marbled boards and tan calf corners, Spine with gilt lines and 2 red labels with gilt lettering . The frontis, engraved title page and 2nd title page and 4 pages internally with expert repairs to the page edges. A very good copy with minimal aging.
- There are doubts as to whether this really is the work of Hannah Wolley. [See PPC #9 pp.66. Uta Schumacher-Voelker casts serious doubt on the authorship of this book and furthermore, presents some compelling points of research, that at least highlight the ambiguity, but unfortunately do not prove conclusively the case, for or against]. From the library of Edward Gordon Craig we also learn that it is probably an unauthorised work based on Woolley's text. Certainly the ambiguous fact of two different initials in the same book, of one T.P. at the end of the Epistle Directory and the initials of B.H. on the un-numbered page next to p204 further hightens the confusion. It has been listed here under Wolley, as that is the name on one of the labels. If an answer is ever found and whatever it may be, it is none the less a rare book.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10924

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

King. Dr William The very rare undated 1st Edition.
The Art of Cookery
In Imitation of Horace's Art of Poetry. WITH SOME LETTERS TO Dr. LISTER, and Others: Occasion'd principally by the Title of a Book publish'd by the Doctor, being the works of Apicius Coelius, Concerning the Soups and Sauces of the Antients. With an Extract of the greatest Curiosities contain'd in that Book. To which is added, HORACE'S Art of Poetry, in Latin. By the Author of the Journey to LONDON. Humbly inscrib'd to the Honourable BEEF STEAK CLUB. LONDON: Printed for BERNARD LINTOTT at the Cross-Keys between the two Temple Gates in Fleet Street. Undated.
FIRST AUTHORIZED EDITION. n/d [1708]. Octavo (7.5 by 5 inches). 2fep. Half Title. [1] Title Page. [1] 4pp The Publisher to the Reader. 1-160. 2fep. Bound in black half calf with cloth boards and calf corners. Spine with raised bands, gilt lines and gilt lettering. Internally clean however with some slight browning to Half title and title and last leaf. A nice copy of a scarce book.
- There is a little, amusing, early typewritten note tipped in that states; 'The poem is in Latin, with an English paraphrase, full of good sense. Our English restaurateurs might mark the following couplet, referring to the greatest deficiency of our restaurants: 'Tis the Desert that graces all the Feast, for an ill end disparages the rest.' William King (1663-1712), English poet and miscellaneous writer. He was educated at Westminster School under Dr Busby, and at Christ Church, Oxford. His first literary enterprise was a defense of Wycliffe, written in conjunction with Sir Edward Hannes (d. 1710) and entitled Reflections upon Mons. Vaiillas's History of Heresy.. . (1688). He became known as a humorous writer on the Tory and High Church side. His chief poems are: The Art of Cookery: in imitation of Horace's Art of Poetry. With some Letters to Dr Lister and Others (1708), one of his most amusing works; The Art of Love; in imitation of Ovid ... (1709); "Mully of Mountoun," and a burlesque "Orpheus and Eurydice." A volume of Miscellanies in Prose and Verse appeared in 1705; his Remains.. . were edited by J. Brown in 1732; and in 1776 John Nichols produced an excellent edition of his Original Works with Historical Notes and Memoirs of the Author (see item #11281 below). Dr Johnson included him in his Lives of the Poets, and his works appear in subsequent collections.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10939

Mollard. John - The rare first edition with very rare menu.
The Art of Cookery
MADE EASY AND REFINED; COMPRISING AMPLE DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARING EVERY ARTICLE REQUISITE FOR FURNISHING THE TABLES OF THE NOBLEMAN, GENTLEMAN, AND TRADESMAN. BY JOHN MOLLARD, Cook; One of the Proprietors of Freemasons’ Tavern, Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD BY J, NUNN, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. 1801. T. Beasley, Printer, Bolt Court, Fleet Street.
FIRST EDITION. Large octavo. 1fep. Half-Title. [1] Title page. [1] 1p Engraved Dedication leaf to the Original Proprietor of The London Tavern, very slightly browned. [1] (1)vi-viii Preface. (1)x-xxiv Contents. 12 Plates of Monthly Table Settings with each verso blank. (1)2-314. 21p Index. 1fep. The whole text block with wide margins. Modern dark brown full calf with with elaborate gilt tooled edges to the boards and the inner edges of the paste-downs. The spine with raised bands with elaborate gilt tooling and gilt devices in the compartments. With a black leather label and gilt letters. ALSO enclosed: A Freemason's Tavern Menu enclosed: Dated January 18th 1890. Mr E. Stanford’s Dinner. Consisting of six courses and seventeen dishes. Written in English. Printed on cream coloured card with gilt edges and fine decorative text. A very clean handsome copy of the very rare first edition, with the equally rare enclosed menu.
- Before John Mollard owned the Freemason's Tavern he had been Head Cook at the London Tavern. In this book the beautifully scripted and engraved page is dedicated to the London Tavern Proprietor - Laurence Laforest, therein Mollard proclaims Laforest as a man of high reputation in the same Profession. In the Old Bailey records for May 14th 1777 at the trial of a George Hawkins who had stolen an engraved silver bowl and spoon from the London Tavern, we learn that Laforest was the owner of the Tavern with three other partners, Thomas Simkins, John Bladen and Henry Caridge. The unfortunate George Hawkins was found guilty, branded with a hot iron and received 8 lashes of the whip. In the same records we learn that two ladies were sentenced to be carried and whipped for 100 yards along Bishopsgate Street past the London Tavern. The contrast between the fine dining establishment of high standards and repute and the raw life-scenes outside are startling in the extreme. Lieut-Col. Newnham-Davis in his book 'Victorian London' 1899, writes extensively of the Freemasons' Tavern, and it is worth repeating parts here to give a glimpse of Mollard's past workplace and jointly owned establishment. -- The Tavern is not what the name implies. It was a restaurant, with a large public dining-room, with a fine ballroom, and with many private dining-rooms. Its outside was imposing (see picture 1 below). Two houses stand side by side. Built of red brick, with windows set in white stone and Elizabethan in appearance. At the entrance to the Tavern stand two great janitors. Facing the doorway, at the end of a wide hall, is a long flight of stairs broken by a broad landing and decorated with statues. Up and down this ladies and gentlemen are passing, and I ask one of the janitors what is going on in the ballroom. "German Liederkranz. Private entertainment. What dinner, sir? Victory Chapter. Drawing-room,” is the condensed information given by the big man, and he points a white-gloved hand to a passage branching off to the right. On one side of the passage is a door leading into a bar where three ladies in black are kept very busy in attending to the wants of thirsty Freemasons. On the other side is a wide shallow alcove in the wall fitted with shelves and glazed over, and in this is a curious collection of plate, great salvers, candelabra, and centre-pieces. Beside the alcove is a glass door, and outside it is hung a placard with “Gavel Club. Private” upon it. At the end of the passage a little Staircase leads up to higher regions, and on the wall is an old-fashioned clock with a round face and very plain figures, and some oil paintings dark with age. On the first landing there is a placard outside a door with “Victory Chapter” on it, and higher up outside another door another placard with “Perfection Chapter” on it. From the stream of guests and waiters which is setting up the stairs it is evident that there are many banquets to be held to-night. The drawing-room is white-and-gold in colour. Four Corinthian pillars, the lower halves of which are painted old-gold colour, with gold outlining the curves of their capitals, support a highly-ornamented ceiling, the central panel of which is painted to represent clouds, with some little birds flitting before them. The paper is old-gold in colour with large flowers upon it. There is some handsome furniture in the room— a fine cabinet, a clock of elaborate workmanship, and some good china vases. The curtains to the windows are of red velvet. At the end of the room farthest from the door is a horseshoe table with red and white shaded candles on it, ferns, chrysanthemums, and heather in china pots, pines, and hothouse fruits, and at close intervals bottles of champagne and Apollinaris. At the other end of the room, where stands a piano, with a screen in front of it, the gentlemen in evening clothes are chatting, having put their coats and hats on chairs and piano wherever room can be found. The waiters, in black with white gloves, are putting the last touches to the decorations. I have eaten some good dinners at the Freemasons’ Tavern, and others not so good. Tonight the cook is not up to his best form, and has not responded to the inspiration of the meuu --- Crevettes - Tortue clair - Filets de sole Meunière - Vol-au-vent aux huîtres natives - Faisan Souvaroff - Selle de mouton - Céleri braise Bordelaise - Layer. Pommes Parisienne - Poularde rôtie - Lard grillé - Salade - Bombe glacée Duchesse - Os à la moëlle - Dessert - Café. The turtle soup is not like that of the excellent Messrs. Ring and Brymer, or that of Mr. Painter; the faisan Souvaroff is dry, and the cook’s nerve has failed him when the truffles had to be added; but, on the other hand, the sole Meunière and the vol-au-vent are admirable, and the marrow-bones are large and scalding-hot. After dinner, one by one the guests who have appointments elsewhere, or who are going to the theatre, say good-night and go off; but a remnant still remain, and these make an adjournment to a cosy little clubroom on the top story of Freemasons’ Hall, where good stories are told, and soda-water-bottle corks pop until long after midnight. There is a small Masonic dining-club, called the Sphinx Club, which dines at the Freemasons’ Tavern, and which I mention because the dinner I last ate in company with my brother Sphinxes was one of the best efforts of the chef and of the manager Mons. Blanchette — which means that it was very good indeed. The club was founded as an antidote to the large amount of soft soap that Freemasons habitually plaster each other with in after-dinner speeches. No Sphinx is allowed to say anything good of any brother Sphinx, and when a candidate is put up for the club his proposer says all the ill he knows or can invent about his past life. A candidate can only become a member of the club by being unanimously blackballed. It is needless to say that the best of temper and good fellowship is the rule amongst the Sphinxes, and the Freemasons’ Tavern seems to always have a very good dinner for them. This was the menu of their last banquet --- Huîtres - Tortue clair - Rouget à la Grenobloise - Caille à la Souvaroff - Agneau rôti - Sauce menthe - Choux de mer - Pommes noisettes - Bécasse sur canapé - Pommes paille - Salade de laitues - Os à la moëlle - Petit soufflé glacé rosette - Fondu au fromage - Dessert - Café. THE MENU enclosed with this book: Dated January 18th 1890. Mr E. Stanford’s Dinner at the Freemason's Tavern; Consisting of six courses and seventeen dishes. Written in English, the menu offers relatively plain sounding fare compared to the more elegant dinner of the above Sphinx Club, that is presented in French, by Lieut-Col. Newnham-Davis, nine years later, in his book of 'Victorian London' dated 1899. The bibliographies have their usual variance. Oxford & Vicaire have each a first of 1801 and Oxford a 3rd of 1807 and a new edition, 1836. Bitiing has a 2nd of 1802. Cagle also has a 2nd and a 4th of 1808.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11121

THACKER. JOHN The Head Chef of a large Kitchen Brigade.
THE ART OF COOKERY
heretofore published, under the following Heads, viz. ( followed by 3 vertical lists divided by 2 sets of double lines) Roasting, Boiling, Frying, Broiling, Baking, Fricasees, Puddings, Custards, (double line) Cakes, Cheese-cakes, Tarts, Pyes, Soops, Made-Wines, Jellies, Carving, (double line) Pickling, Preserving, Pastry, Collering, Confectionary, Creams, Ragoos, Braising, &. &. ALSO, A BILL OF FARE For every Month in the Year. WITH AN Alphabetical INDEX to the Whole: BEING A BOOK highly necessary for all FAMILIES, having the GROUNDS of COOKERY fully display'd therein. (a single horizontal line) by JOHN THACKER, COOK to the Honourable and Reverend the Dean and Chapter in DURHAM. (a double horizontal line) NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE: Printed by I. Thompson and Company. (a small single horizontal line) MDCCLV111.
FIRST EDITION. 1758. 8vo. 204 x 130mm. 2fep. Title Page on recto, verso blank. 4p Preface. 7p Index. (1)2-322. 32p letterpress Bills of Fare. 1p Errata slip on 1st fep, 2nd fep. Many in-text illustrations. Text block very lightly age-browned, Title page with water staining not affecting text, overall good condition. Full dark brown contemporary calf. Spine and front cover split but holding. Top and bottom of spine missing small pieces. Overall a very rare first edition. Bitting p458. Cagle p1019. MacLean pp140-141. Oxford p88. Provenance: 'Anne Williamson'. Later ink sig. to head of title. Mary Chadsey bookplate on front paste-down.
- An exhibition in Durham Cathedral’s multi award-winning museum experience, named 'Open Treasure', examines the role that food and drink played in the life of the cathedral and its inhabitants through the centuries. Focused on the famous Great Kitchen, the exhibition explores everything from medieval monastic rules on fasting to the kitchen’s present-day role as home of the treasures of St Cuthbert as part of 'Open Treasure'. Designed by architect John Lewyn, and built to provide daily meals for a community of 60 monks and their guests, construction of a large kitchen began in 1366 at the substantial cost of £180 17s 7d (more than £120,000 in today’s money). Featuring an innovative vaulted ceiling, the Prior’s Kitchen (now known as the Great Kitchen) provided the monks with an array of dishes prepared according to the 6th century ‘Rule of St Benedict’. Stating that meals should consist of “two kinds of cooked food”, the rule called upon monks to abstain from eating meat unless they were ill, and encouraged abstinence from drink despite allowing “half a bottle of wine a day” as sufficient for each monk. Although a large staff manned the kitchen on a daily basis, including dedicated ‘seethers’ to boil food, a ‘turnbroach’ to work the spit, and a ‘pastillator’ to prepare pastry, visiting royalty and noblemen would also bring their own cooks with them to prepare the immense feasts the cathedral was known for. Over the years the kitchen would play host to the cooks of the Earls of Northumberland, Warwick and Westmorland, the Duke of Exeter, the Archbishop of York and the Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III. Catering both everyday meals and lavish banquets, the bustling kitchen saw a tremendous variety of dishes being prepared, with Cathedral records showing over 1000 suppliers providing an array of foodstuffs including sugar, ginger, saffron, currants, almonds, plums and grapes. Excavations of the kitchen in 2011 also revealed evidence of cattle, sheep, pig, goose and chicken bones; along with 21 different species of fish; oyster, cockle and mussel shells; as well as some more unusual examples including a frog and even a porpoise! Recipes for dishes served at the Cathedral over the centuries can be found in ‘The Art of Cookery’ written by John Thacker, who was cook to the Dean and Chapter between 1739 and 1758. To supplement his £10 annual income, he opened a cookery school in 1742 and began publishing recipes as a monthly magazine in 1746, with a complete book following in 1758. Containing over 650 recipes and drawings on how to present the dishes, Thacker’s cookbook includes many recipes you could easily recreate at home, including beef steak pie, chocolate cream, almond cakes, and ‘Queen’s Biscuits’. The Great Kitchen continued to function as a working kitchen up until the 1940s when practicality saw the preparation of food moved closer to the Deanery. Used to house the cathedral archive between 1951 and 1992, the kitchen was converted into the cathedral’s bookshop in 1997.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11122

ANON. - The names of authors written in ink.
THE ART OF DINING;
or GASTRONOMY AND GASTRONOMERS, (single fine line) LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBERMARLE STREET. 1852. 2nd PART: MUSIC AND THE ART OF DRESS. TWO ESSAYS REPRINTED FORM THE 'QUARTERY REVIEW.' (single fine line) LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBERMARLE STREET. 1852.
FIRST EDITION. 172 X 110 mm. 2FEPS. Title page, with author's name; By A. Hayward QC. Verso: Adverts for John Murray publications. (1)Prefatory Notice. [1] (1) - vi Contents. (1)2 - 128. (1)130 - 137 Appendix. Verso Adverts for John Murray publications. 2nd. PART. Title page, with author's name; By Lady Eastlake. [1] (1) - vi Contents. (1)2 - 112. 2feps. Quarter light tan leather binding with marbled paper and light tan leather tips to boards. Spine with blind and gilt tooling and black and gilt label. All text block edges marbled. An elegant book.
- A hugely fascinating book with articles from at least ten famous (at the time) people: Lords, Lady's, Diplomats, Counts and Editors. The author whose name in ink adorns the top of the title page of the first part seems to be by Abraham Hayward QC. who wrote many articles, letters and reviews. The second author whose name also appears in ink atop the second title page is Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, a 43 year-old in 1852. A reviewer, translator and essayist, who was famously the object of hallucination by the great English painter J.M.W. Turner, on his deathbed. On pages 30/31 there is a very interesting detailed report by a Lady Morgan, (famous Irish author and reviewer) about a dinner cooked by Careme at Baron Rothschild's villa. Before this, on page 29, there are a series of distinctions of the varying professional merits of the two most famous Chefs of the time, and alleged rivals; Careme and Beauvilliers. Careme is viewed as superior on 'invention' and Beauvilliers' more remarkable for 'judgement' but had exhausted the old world of the art, while Careme discovered a new one. On page 73 after a discussion of the great culinary reputations of the current crop of named British Chefs and their placements, it is Louis Eustache Ude whom they place at the top, due to his twenty years educating the palate of the late Earl of Sefton. This is the same Ude who wrote the famous book of cookery titled 'The French Cook', and later the Chef de Cuisine of Crockfords Club in St. James's, Mayfair. Page after page of anecdotes, gossip and essays of the History of Cookery, the Gastronomic effects of the French Revolution, accounts of Paris Restaurants, famous Dinners in England, merits of female and male Cooks etc etc. Of great interest to anyone who wants more detailed information on the great Chefs of that era, and their famous Patrons.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11286

Beauvilliers. Antione B. - Very scarce second English edition.
The Art of French Cookery.
BY A.B. BEAUVILLIERS, RESTAURATEUR, PARIS. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN. PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1825.
Second edition. 182x112 mm. 2 feps (one modern one original). Title Page. [1] (1)iv-vi Discourse. (1)viii-xiii To Mistresses of Families. (1)xv To the Cook. [1] (1)2-347. [1] 11p Menus. 1p Lines for notes. (1)362-380. 1fep. Internally very clean with untrimmed and many uncut pages. Half fawn calf with marbled boards. A very nice copy of the very scarce English translation.
- Antoine B. Beauvilliers, born 1754, died 31.1.1817, was a French restaurateur; He published 'l’Art du Cuisinier' in 2 volumes in 1814. A first English translation titled ‘The Art of French Cookery’ was published in 1824 and this second edition here published one year later. Beauvilliers was trained in the royal kitchen of the Bourbons, and served as steward in the household of the Count of Provence; the future King Louis XVIII. He created and opened La Grande Taverne de Londres at 26 rue de Richelieu in 1782, which it is claimed, was the first real restaurant in Paris. He was famous for greeting clients wearing a sword, which is amusingly suggested online, probably came in handy if they were a bit strapped when it came to paying. In 1792 the chaos of the French Revolution forced him to shut his doors and he was imprisoned for a while. Beauvilliers also spent some time working in England as association with the nobility in France might have endangered his life. Returning to Paris towards the end of the Directory however, he re-opened his restaurant, and re-named it the 'Taverne de Londres'. It was the first luxury restaurant to open in the aftermath of the Revolution. (Mosimann Cat.#23) The term restaurant already existed in France, but it previously referred only to small establishments that sold broth or bouillon as restoratives. In his establishment, Beauvilliers was the first to offer an 'a la carte' menu‘ (meaning from the card) offering his guests the opportunity to choose from a number of menu items, as opposed to the fixed 'table d’hote' menu of the past. Restaurants proliferated after the Revolution as the nobility’s former chefs returned and sought employment. They were in contrast to Antonin Careme who had stayed, lived and worked through the social upheaval. He represented the grandest statement of the old, court-based cuisine. He was one of the last practitioners of 'service a la francaise', that found expression in the great buffets and dinners of the nobility, serving as many as eighty dishes for one meal. The recipes in Beauvilliers book are very precise and written for the professional. In a time of great social and political change in France his book is also an important milestone on the gastronomic landscape of that country's great culinary tradition. Careme's style of service was no longer tenable. Beauvillier's restaurant was as different and modern as Adria's 'El Bulli' is today. A new age had dawned in France and pragmatic necessity dictated, as always.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11174

Kitchiner. Dr William - With a hand written letter signed by Kitchiner.
THE ART OF INVIGORATING AND PROLONGING LIFE,
BY FOOD, CLOTHES, AIR, EXERCISE, WINE SLEEP, &C. AND PEPTIC PRECEPTS, POINTING OUT AGREEABLE AND EFFECTUAL METHODS TO PREVENT AND RELIEVE INDIGESTION, AND TO REGULATE AND STRENGTHEN THE ACTION OF THE BOWELS. Suaviter in mode, fortitier in re. TO WHICH IS ADDED, THE PLEASURE OF MAKING A WILL. Finis coronat opus. BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE COOK'S ORACLE," &C.&C.&C. THIRD EDITION, ENLARGED. LONDON PRINTED FOR HURST, ROBINSON, AND CO. AND CONSTABLE AND CO. EDINBURGH. 1822.
106 x 174mm. 2feps modern, with a tipped in hand written letter signed by Kitchiner. Half title. Verso with printer's info. Title page. [1] 1p Dedication. {1] (1)viii Preface. 1p Contents. Verso advertisement for 'The Cook's Oracle'. (1)2-288. (1)290-298. 2p Advertisements. 2fep modern. Nice modern bottle green half calf with cloth boards and calf tips. Spine with raised bands, gilt lines and gilt writing in two compartments. The top of the text block has been clipped with no loss except for the chart on p144 which has half the first line clipped. The title page slightly age browned but overall a nice copy.
- William Kitchiner M.D. (1775–1827) One of the great Regency eccentrics, was an optician, inventor of telescopes, amateur musician and exceptional cook. His name was a household word during the 19th century. His best known cookbook is ‘Apicius Redivivus, or the Cook's Oracle’. It includes 11 ketchup recipes, including two each for mushroom, walnut and tomato, and one each for cucumber, oyster, cockle and mussel ketchups. Unlike most food writers of the time he cooked the food himself washed up afterward, even performing all the household tasks he wrote about. He traveled around with his portable cabinet of taste; a folding cabinet, containing spices, mustards and sauces. He was also the creator of the Wow-Wow sauce. But Kitchiner was not a mere book publishing cook: he practised what he taught, and he had ample means for the purpose. From his father, a coal-merchant with an extensive business in the Strand, he had inherited a fortune of £60,000 or £70,000 (converted to 2017 rates, amounting to £5,502,155.56) which was more than sufficient to enable him to work out his ideal of life. His heart overflowed with benevolence and good humour, and no man better understood the art of making his friends happy. He showed equal tact in his books: his 'Cook's Oracle' is full of practical common-sense; and lest his reader should stray into excess, he wrote this book ‘The Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life’. With his ample fortune, Kitchiner was still an economist, and wrote a ‘Housekeeper's Ledger’, a 'Traveller's Oracle', and a coaxing volume entitled ‘The Pleasures of Making a Will’. He also wrote on astronomy, telescopes, and spectacles. In music he was proficient. In 1820, at the coronation of George IV, he published a collection of the National Songs of Great Britain, a folio volume, with a splendid dedication plate to His Majesty. Next he edited The Sea Songs of Charles Dibdin. At this time he resided at No. 43, Warren-street, Fitzroy-square. Though always an epicure, and fond of experiments in cookery, exceedingly particular in the choice of his viands and their mode of preparation for the table, Kitchiner was regular even abstemious in his general habits. His dinners were cooked according to his own method; He dined at five, supper was served at half-past nine and at eleven he retired. Every Tuesday evening he gave a conversazione, at which he delighted in bringing together professors and amateurs of the sciences and polite arts. On the 26th of February 1827, he was a guest at a large dinner-party given by Mr. Braham, the celebrated singer. He had been in high spirits, and had enjoyed the company to a later hour than his usually early habits allowed. Mathews was present, and rehearsed a portion of a new comic entertainment, which induced Kitchiner to amuse the party with some of his whimsical reasons for inventing odd things, and giving them odd names. He returned home, was suddenly taken ill, and in an hour he was no more! The handwritten letter was penned one year before his death in 1827 aged fifty two. Kitchiner is asking his correspondent to call upon Sir A. Carlisle "to hear his plan for a 'Book of Health'. Signed 'Wm Kitchiner Dec 23rd. 26. 43. Warren St. The relevant tipped-in note from Kitchiner gives this item an interesting rarity.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11099

Blumenthal Heston - A signed copy.
The Big Fat Duck Cookbook
Heston Blumenthal BLOOMSBURY
FIRST EDITION. 2008. Large thick folio. 340x295mm. Paste-down and end-paper marbled. [1] 1p with Egg device and with his quite unique signature and 2 signed copies of 'Table d' Hote' menus -- See jpegs # 5 below. Frontis & Title page all one image. 4p Artwork. 8-11 Forward by Harold McGee. 2p Artwork. 2p History. [1] 17-516. 517-526 Index. 527-528 Acknowledgements. 529 Credits. [3] Rear end-paper, both sides and paste-down marbled. Fully bound in dark grey cloth with silver gilt devices on both covers and writing on the spine. All paper edges deep silver gilt. Slip case covered exactly the same as the book. With four brightly coloured page saving ribbons. Many full page colour photographs, artwork and illustrations throughout. Also comes with the original brown cardboard shipping box, which is covered in Fat Duck logo artwork. All in mint condition, as new.
- Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck Restaurant in Bray, Berkshire has been described as a culinary alchemist for his innovative style of cuisine. Besides being a highly accomplished chef a large part of his work entails researching the structures and molecular compounds of foods and dishes so to enable a greater understanding of taste and flavour. This original and scientific approach has teamed him with fellow chefs, scientists and psychologists throughout the world. His restaurant, The Fat Duck, opened in 1995 and was awarded its third Michelin star in January 2004. Other significant awards, among many, are; Gault Millau, 19/20 rating, January 2005; Chef of the Year Catering & Hotelkeeper Magazine, Catey Awards 2004; Good Food Guide accreditation 10/10, and best Restaurant in the UK, 2008; Second Best Restaurant In The World awarded by the Restaurant Magazines International Academy 50 Best Restaurants in the World Awards 2008; In July 2006 Blumenthal was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by The University of Reading for his dedicated research and commitment to the exploration of culinary science. Jay Rayner of The Observer. writes in 2008 about the The Big Fat Duck Cookbook --- "What Blumenthal has produced is, in truth, three books in one. At the front is the autobiography, beautifully and wittily illustrated by Dave McKean, who has reinvented the man as the fictional hero of his own narrative, all domed forehead, questing chin and razor-sharp glasses. That said, this is not some grimly narcissistic sleb memoir. If there is an anecdote here, it is because of the part it played in Blumenthal's development as a chef. Next comes the complete Fat Duck recipes, with the glossiest and filthiest of gastro-porn photography. (Who knew the whipping of a pink spiced pickling foam could look so, well, gynaecological?) These recipes are staggeringly long, involve fiendishly expensive pieces of equipment, are extraordinarily detailed and are probably, for the home cook, completely unmanageable, but that's to miss the point. As Blumenthal himself says: 'To change any part of these recipes so that they are more easily achievable would be to compromise - something this book does not do.' Even so, they are worth reading, partly because there are sub-recipes that are within reach (try the gratin of truffled macaroni), partly to appreciate the remarkable effort required to achieve the effect, and partly because it's fun to spot unlikely ingredients. Sure, there are references to substances from the industrial food world like the emulsifier lecithin and the protein 'glue' transglutaminase (oh, the things you can do to mackerel fillets with that). But there are also walk-on parts for frozen peas, mass-produced white bread and Marmite. Blumenthal is big on the flavours of our childhood, the easiest way to open the door to our memories, and he is not afraid to investigate the emotional punch of that nostalgia through his tasting menu. Finally there is the science stuff, a set of explanations so complete and detailed they've had to drop the type size to get it all in. And that, finally, is the point of this book: nothing has been left out; it is all here. It is true that a lot of enthusiastic home cooks will receive this as a gift this Christmas, pore over the pictures, read the text and never once cook from it. But a lot of professional chefs will also buy it, study and examine the text and recipes and let that shape their own cooking. Those wrong-headed, appetite-challenged killjoys who are suspicious of what Blumenthal does will regard this as an unfortunate development. As for me, I can only see it as a very good thing indeed". --- After all Jay Rayner has written this is a thoughfully constructed, original and very unusual but beautiful book, that won for Blumenthal, the Food Book of the Year Award at The Guild of Food Writers Awards, 2009. One assumes it will be a classic in future cookery book collections, if not already.

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Modern category

ref number: 11052

Beeton. Isabella Mary - 1st Edition - 1st issue.
The Book of Household Management
Comprising information for the MISTRESS, HOUSEKEEPER, COOK, KITCHEN-MAID, BUTLER, FOOTMAN, COACHMAN, VALET, UPPER AND UNDER HOUSE-MAIDS, LADY'S MAID, MAID-OF-ALL-WORK, LAUNDRY-MAID, NURSE AND NURSE-MAID, MONTHLY, WET AND SICK NURSES, ETC.ETC. ALSO SANITARY, MEDICAL AND LEGAL MEMORANDA; WITH A HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN, PROPERTIES, AND USES OF ALL THINGS CONNECTED WITH HOME LIFE AND COMFORT. BY MRS ISABELLA BEETON. "Nothing lovelier can be found in woman, than to study household good".-Milton. LONDON: S.O. BEETON, 248, STRAND, W.C. 1861.
FIRST EDITION, First issue. Thick 8vo. 2feps. Double chromo-lithographed frontispiece and elaborate title page with the Bouverie St address. Additional Title Page. [1] [iv-iv] [1] [vi-xxxix] including analytical index. [1] 2-1112. 2feps. 12 Colour plates. Original maroon half calf with maroon cloth boards and calf tips with gilt lines. Contemporary ornate gilt tooled spine relaid, with one panel used for book title. Faded gilt to page edges Overall slightly rubbed and faded but still very good. Clean internally with overall slight browning due to age. A handsome copy.
- Various editions of Beeton's cookery books are fairly numerous -- online, in auctions and in book-fairs, and the two issues of the first edition are far from rare, (although the first issue is very scarce) but they continue to maintain high prices, and are much sought after. This is accounted for by their far-reaching fame, and the fact that they are one of the most attractive cookery books ever published. Their famous double chromo-lithographed frontispiece and elaborate colourful first title page, additional second title page, the unique colour plates, dozens of page illustrations, comprehensive recipes, and chapters on all aspects of household management, are a great and true reflection of Victorian values, style and endeavor. "The Book of Household Management' was originally issued by Isabella in 24 monthly parts from 1859-61. The 24 parts, unlike the books are extremely rare. The book is a relatively small, but fat octavo, and holds a place in collectors affections that possibly other cookery books do not.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10912