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. Sixty-Fifth Thousand. LONDON: S.O. BEETON, 248, STRAND, W.C. 1864.
FIRST EDITION, Fourth Issue. Thick 8vo. 1fep. [1] Frontispiece (The plate that sits between p112-113 in the other first editions). Title Page. [1] [iv-iv] [1] [vi-xxxix] including the Preface to the first edition, the General Contents and the Analytical Index. [1] 2-1112. 1fep. Surprisingly bound in the original manner of the first edition-first issue with the original navy blue cloth with 1/4 navy blue calf. Gilt stamped on the front cover and gilt writing on the spine with original blind tooling. The spine has been sometime expertly re-laid without loss. Also the book is slightly thicker than the previous three issues of the 1st edition due to a thicker paper being used. Very clean internally. A nice copy of the very scarce, dated, fourth edition, usually found incomplete.
- There is almost no difference in the text, page by page, recipe by recipe in the collation of the 1st, 2nd & 3rd issues of the first editions except the Errata on p.vi is not present in this issue, but is on the preceding three issues. Another small difference is item nos. 2745 and 2751 of the Legal Memorandam of the 1st and 2nd issues are different in the 3rd and 4th issues. The other difference is the plates in this issue have the same content as the other preceding two first issues but have a different floral border and are of a higher quality. Isabella Beeton who had sound business acumen issued the 3rd and 4th editions using the leftovers from the first two issues. This explains why there is no unique frontispieces from the 1st and 2nd issues present here, but rather has the plate from p113 instead, even though the list of Coloured Plates on p.xxxix states the plate should face p.113. One assumes Isabella and Samuel ran out of plates completely, as this is the last one of the four first issues with the original plates, before publication of the new and very different ones of the revised and corrected second edition of 1869. This is a unique book and is the last edition Isabella Beeton would issue before her untimely death on February 5th, 1865.
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Antiquarian category
ref number:
11067