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