Royal Cookery; or, the Complete Court-Cook.
CONTAINING THE Choicest Receipts in all the particular Branches of COOKERY, Now in Use in the Queen's PALACES OF St. James, Hampton-Court, and Kensington, Windsor.With nearly Forty Figures(curiously engraven Copper) of the magnificent Entertainments as Coronations, Istal-ments, Ball, Weddings, &c. at Court; Also Receipts for making the Soups, Jellies, Bisques, Ragoo's, Pastes, Tan-sies, Forc'd-Meats, Cakes, Puddings, &c. By PATRICK LAMB, Esq, Near 50 Years Master-Cook to their late Majesties King Charles II, King James II, King William and Queen Mary, and to Her Present Majesty Queen ANNE. To which are added, Bills of Fare for every Season in the Year. London, Printed for Abel Roper, and sold by John Morphew, near Stationers-Hall. 1710.
FIRST EDITION. 1st ISSUE. 1710. 8vo 195x125mm. 1fep. Half title. [1] Title Page. [1] 6p Preface. 4p Contents. 2p Content of Tables. (1)2-127 with 36 plates, many folding. [1] 12p Bills of Fare. 4p Advertisements. 1fep. Full contemporary dark panelled calf with blind tooled fillets on the boards. Expertly rebacked with raised bands and gilt lettering. A handsome very clean copy with a fine patina.
- There is some confusion amongst dealers, catalogue compilers and bibliographers about the issue sequence of the two first editions of 1710. One issue point asks which comes first; the Roper imprint or the other, the Aitkins imprint. Another issue point is the date that is printed on later editions on the third line of adverts at the back of the book. The copy on offer here has no date in the adverts. It has the half title; often missing and all 36 plates as called for. Confusion also exists over the plate count. Bitting cites 34, Viciare calls for 36 and Alan Davidson's copy, sold on March 24th 2011 at Bloomsbury auctions, had 35 plates, conforming with the printed 'Contents of the Tables' list. These oddities appear to constitute printer's mistakes rather than defining different editions. Patrick Lamb (1650-1708/9) began work in the royal household as a child. In 1683 he advanced to become royal cook, then in 1677 he was appointed as master cook to the queen consort, a post that he held jointly with that of office of Sergeant of His Majesty's Pastry in Ordinary, to which he was appointed in November 1677; he became Master Cook to the monarch in February 1683. Lamb's culinary skills were most famously in evidence at extraordinary events like coronations. Lamb's name is recorded in Francis Sandford's famous book 'The History of the Coronation of James II'- printed 1687. He is given a stipend of gold coins for his efforts as Master Cook to His Majesty during the Coronation feast. At the auction of the cookery book collection of Tore Wretman, sold in Southby's, London, Thursday 2 October 1997. an incomplete copy of Sandford's book was sold with a manuscript note on the fep. in Lambs handwriting and signed by him, stating: 'his copy given to him by His Majesty'. Lamb was Master-Cook to five Monarchs and his book was the most heavily illustrated English cookery book to date. Some of Lamb's contemporaries contend that this book was speculatively published under his name. ODNB remarks that the text incorporates recipes for elaborate royal dishes alongside lavish royal table layouts that suggest the text and additions were drawn from Lamb's own papers. There were new editions in 1716, 1726 and 1731. This one is a very clean and complete copy of the rare first edition. Lamb's posthumously published book (He died in 1709) is one of the most important items in any comprehensive antiquarian cookery book collection. Good copies continue to find very high prices. In April 7th 2008, a gastronomic collection assembled by Walter and Lucille Fillin and sold at the Swann Galleries, NYC, featured a first edition of Lamb's 'Royal Cookery' (the same as the copy on offer here). It was sold to the trade for $19,200.oo. According to Swann, this set an auction-price record.
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Antiquarian category
ref number:
11025