[Billhead - Hardware]. Getchell & Taylor
Exeter, NH, 1895
Exeter, NH: Getchell & Taylor, 1895. Billhead (11.8 x 21.7 cm.). Printed billhead for Getchell & Taylor, "dealers in hardware, paints, oils, furnaces and ranges [...]crockery, glass and tinware, plumbing and metal work." Bill for Mrs. Frank Rollins who purchased gas range, oven, and one gallon gasoline. Some discoloration to verso, otherwise very good.
[Pioneer Club (Las Vegas, Nevada)]
[Las Vegas, Nevada; [Newton, Iowa, 1953
[Las Vegas, Nevada; [Newton, Iowa: the Club; Bebco Litho. Co, 1953. Miniature book, stapled, in stiff wrappers (8 x 5.3 cm.), [60] pages. Illustrated. FIRST EDITION of this promotional cocktail recipe book with calendars. Includes room for addresses and memoranda. A child's pencil scribbles to a few of the memorandum pages. in publisher's stiff blue leatherette, silver-titled and decorated. Rubbing to edges, otherwise very good. Very scarce. [OCLC locates no copies; one similar copy published 1956 listing Walnuts of Chicago as the corporate author found at Franklin & Marshall].
[Third Presbyterian Church (Indianapolis, Ind.); Ladies of the Church]
Indianapolis, Ind, 1876
Indianapolis, Ind: [The Church; Printed by] Baker, Schmidlap & Co., Printers and Binders, 1876. Octavo (20 x 14 cm.), 137 [ii] pages. "Index" is actually a table of contents. Blank leaves intercalated. Author from prefatory note, page [3] (called "Dedicatory" in the table of contents). ~ Evident FIRST EDITION. A centenary-year church cookbook - "for the daughters and grand-daughters of the century to come" - with some three hundred unattributed recipes. Representative among them: Corn Oysters, Fried Tomatoes, Cale Cannon (chopped cabbage with mashed potatoes), Scalloped Egg-Plant, Ochra (i.e., Okra) Soup, Frizzled Beef, Fulton Market Stew, Sago Pudding, Whortleberry Pudding, German Toast (also known as French Toast), Plum Catsup, Blackberry Syrup, Preserved Whole Quinces, Charlotte Russe, Boiled Custard, Crème Diplomat (with wine and ginger), Pine-Apple Chips, Raspberry Vinegar. Exemplary, too, of the substantial emphasis in early anthologies, beyond the range of recipes, on chapters dedicated to Bills of Fare, Weights and Measures, Useful Articles (or hints for keeping house), not to forget a reprinting, on page [5], of John Ruskin's then-recent answer to the question "What Does 'Cooking' Mean?" from the seventh chapter of his The Ethics of the Dust (1866). ~ The House-Keepers' Help is unusual for the degree of specificity on its title page regarding the motivation of its contributors: "The proceeds from the sale of this volume are to be devoted to foreign missions, as connected with the Woman's Board." Presbyterian support at the local level of ongoing missionary work in many corners of the world was extensive and well organized, and the Woman's Board acknowledged in the "Dedicatory" would have been the Woman's Presbyterian Board of Missions of the Northwest, centrally administered from Chicago, a consociate organization with the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church, headquartered in Philadelphia. Both of relatively new mintage, their jointly published newsletter Woman's Work for Woman was in its sixth year of publication by 1876. ~ That Presbyterians had established a pervading presence in the Upper Midwest is arguably an understatement. Indianapolis alone had at least sixteen active Presbyterian congregations before 1920. Third Presbyterian was founded in September 1851, its twenty-two members meeting in a small church at the corner of Ohio and Illinois Streets in the center of town. In 1883, a few years after The House-Keepers' Help appeared, the membership reorganized in accordance with what has variously been called the antiformalist or nonconformist movement - promoted nominally by English Baptists, but appealing to many Presbyterians as well - and renamed themselves Presbyterian Tabernacle. Traditional practices, such as graded pew rents and segregation by class, were vociferously abandoned by the new order. ~ Eventually, in 1921, Presbyterian Tabernacle outgrew its downtown location and, though at some remove (at 34th and Central Streets) remains an active community, espousing both local and far-flung missionary ambitions, as did the Woman's Board in the 1870s. ~ A bit shaken, and lacking the front free endpaper. Some light soiling throughout. In publisher's blind-decorated and gilt-titled green cloth; some rubbing to edges. Still, near very good. With several handwritten recipes on the interleaved pages, including A Delicious Drink, Spanish Bun, Higden Pickle, and Shad Roe Salad. Ink ownership inscription of "Mary F. Feeld" to title page and to front paste-down, and one other piece of interesting marginalia. The book's final page of text contains a "Special Notice" urging households to abstain from the use of alcohol. In pencil, a reader has added, "Bone Dry". Scarce. [OCLC locates five copies; Bitting, page 564; Brown 989; Cook, page 71].
[Ladies of the Church of the Reconciliation (Utica, N.Y.)]
Utica, N.Y., 1884
Utica, N.Y.: Converse & Co., Job Printers, 38 Arcade, 1884. Octavo (20.8 x 13.7 cm.), 49, [3] pages. Advertisements. FIRST EDITION. A slim but very enjoyable community cookbook, issued by a woman's church group from Utica, in Central New York State. The recipes, in narrative form, are often but not always attributed. Most pleasing is the array of typefaces used throughout, in the recipe titles and especially in the advertisements. Advertisers include S.S. Converse - "Dropsy Treated Free!", A.L. Owens' Dairy Parlors, Ferrill's Ladies' Oyster Parlor, E.E. Corliss' Human Hair Goods, Geo. Clark's Glove and Mitten Factory, and The Casino! amongst many more. ~ "Dame Durden" was a sort of shorthand for "housewife", with origins deep in English folk songs and tales. Dickens' Esther in Bleak House was referred to as Dame Durden and a song about her was sung by Gabriel Oak in Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. The song was sung to celebrate spring and the fecundity it brings. "Dame Durden" was used as the nom de plume of a cooking advice columnist, and there are at least two cookbooks with the name in the title: the present work, and a "Dame Durden's" Cook Book published in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1890. ~ In publisher's stiff paper boards, backed in brown cloth; some wear to the cloth backing. Near fine. With the attractive bookplate of bon vivant and cookbook collector Crosby Gaige. Unrecorded. [OCLC locates no copies; not in Cook, Brown, or Bitting].
Sykes, Walter J.; Ling, Arthur R.
London, 1907
London: C. Griffin and Company, Limited, 1907. Thick octavo ( x cm.), xviii, 588 pages. Illustrated. Index. Publisher's advertisements. Stated Third Edition, "thoroughly revised by the author and Arthur R. Ling". The first edition was issued in 1897, and the second in 1902 (with 511 pages). In a review of this new edition published August 1907, the journal Nature stated, the work in its present form stands easily first among books in our language devoted to a consideration of the complex scientific problems underlying the brewer's art." Clean and sound; in publisher's brick red cloth, gilt-titled at the spine. Lightest rubbing to edges, otherwise fine. [OCLC records thirty copies of this third edition; Noling, page 398 (citing this edition)].
Dickerman, Charles W.; Flint, Charles, L. (assisted by)
Philadelphia, 1871
Philadelphia: Zeigler & McCurdy.., 1871. Octavo (22.7 x 15 cm.), 774 pages. Illustrated with one hundred forty-one engravings and two plates including the frontispiece, one in color. Later printing, originally issued by Zeigler in 1868. A practical encyclopedia of information on agriculture, stock raising, family medicine, fruit-culture. A bit of foxing throughout, text block and plates clean and sound; edges lightly soiled. Some mottling to front and rear boards from water stain, but not seriously damaged. Rear endpaper also shows dampstaining. In publisher's green cloth, gilt-decorated and -titled. Near very good. [OCLC locates nine copies of this printing].
Stern, G.B. [Gladys Bronwyn Stern]
New York, 1933
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1933. Octavo (18.5 x 13.7 cm.), xii, [2], 263, [1] pages. Thirteen black and white plates, including a frontispiece. Stated Third Printing. Record of "a motor journey through the wine country of France, and adventure devoted chiefly to Bordeaux and Burgundy" (from the jacket flap). Gladys Bronwyn Stern (1890-1973) was the author of more than a dozen novels and short story collections. Clean and sound in pale green cloth-covered boards, decorated in yellow and oxblood. In an attractively designed dust jacket, with an illustration by "Herbert...?" printed in red, green, black, and yellow. Some small edge chips to dust jacket, and some color bleeding visible on the verso of the jacket. Still, near fine, in a very good dust jacket.
Daniel, Professeur Lucien
Rennes, 1924
Rennes: Imprimerie de "L'Ouest Eclair", 1924. Booklet in staples, small octavo (18 x 11.5 cm.), 64 pages. Illustrated with sixty seven figures in the text, all images of plants. FIRST EDITION. A survey of medicinal plants and plants for essences of France's Brittany, published by the Breton Committee for Medicinal Plants and Plant Essences under the patronage of the Interministerial Committee and the National Office for Plant Raw Materials for Drugstores, Pharmacy and Perfumery. Lucien Louis Daniel (1856-1940) was a French botanist and professor of applied botany at the University of Rennes. With Ivan Michurin he is recognized as the founder of the science of the means of directed transformation of plants. His main works are on pomology, the phylloxera question, grafting and the viticultural crisis and the mysteries of symbiotic heredity. Preface by Mr. Émile Perrot Professor of Materia Medica at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Paris. Text block a bit age-toned; a few pencil notes. Wrappers age-toned but not yet brittle. Near very good.
Vizetelly, Henry
Baltimore, 1992
Baltimore: Bacchus Press, 1992. Facsimile. Small octavo (18.5 x 12 cm.), 211, [2] pages. Illustrated with engravings in the text. Limited Edition Facsimile of 500 unnumbered copies (colophon at rear); the original was published by Ward, Lock for Vizetelly in 1880. Based on an 1877 journey to Portugal, Madeira, and Tenerife. Vizetelly, an Italian-born British publisher and journalist, spent enough years in Paris as correspondent to the Illustrated London News to turn him into a bon-vivant and connoisseur of French Literature. He had an abiding interest in wine, and wrote a number of other books on the subject, including, The Wines of the World Characterized & Classed (1875), Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines (1879). In 1882 his most famous work, A History of Champagne: with notes on the other sparkling wines of France, was issued by Sotheran. He served as wine juror for Great Britain at the Vienna and Paris Exhibitions of 1873 and 1878. Vizetelly also published translations of Zola, which landed him in trouble with the Victorian mores of the times. The censorship case against him is well-portrayed in Edward deGrazia'a monumental study of censorship and genius, Girls Lean Back Everywhere. Fine in publisher's port-colored bonded leather. Gilt-titled at the spine. [Gabler, page 386; Noling, page 426].
Chicago: C. Rasmussens Forlag, 1884. Octavo (20 x 13.5 cm.), 319 pages. In Dano-Norwegian, with some recipe titles in English and Swedish. One advertisement (page 308). Illustrated. Decorated endpapers. Table of contents. Lists of household and food-related terms, one with Danish and Norwegian equivalents, the other with English translations. Evident FIRST EDITION. An early Nordic-American cookbook associated with its place of publication owing to the high profile of Danish and Norwegian publishers in Chicago during the last decades of the nineteenth century; at the same time an exemplar of the earliest recipe anthology issued under a title that would later appear several times under the same imprint but relocated to Minneapolis (1892, 1902, and 1916), as well as under the imprint of Brynild Anundsen in Decorah, Iowa (1913). With some seven hundred unattributed recipes, compiled to reflect the interests of Scandinavian immigrants. Representative entries: Norsk Pund-Kage (Norwegian Pound Cake, with a cream-cheese glaze), Stikkelsbærkage (Gooseberry Cake), Danks Æblekage (Danish Apple Cake), Bandbakkelser (possbily Chouquettes), Russiske Pandekager (Russian Pancakes), Grønærte-Suppe (Green Pea Soup), Mi-Carême-Suppe (Mid-Lent Soup, with flounder), Chokolade-Suppe (Chocolate Soup), Koldskaal (Cold Bowl, a sweet buttermilk beverage), Kirsebær-Suppe (Cherry Soup), Gule Erter (Yelow Lentils), Æggesøbe (Egg Porridge), Rød-Grød (a mixed berry pudding), Rhabarber-Grød (Rhubarb Pudding), Sild (Herring), Plukkfisk (Whitefish), Fiske-Frikadesser (Fish Fritters), Stegte Östers (Fried Oysters), Oxesteg paa Amerkansk (Beef Stew American), Bankekjød (Mincemeat), Yankee Pork and Beans, Medister-Pølser (Spiced Sausage), Snittebønner (String Beans), Hvideroer (White Beets), Rodkaal (Kohlrabi, evidently; see below), Kartoffelbrei (Mashed Potatoes). There follows also a selection of recipes recommended for convalescents, a chapter on canning and food preservation, and a valedictory group of beverages, including Arrak and Jordbærlikør (Strawberry Liqueur). ~ Though his principal associates in Illinois were Norwegian, Christian Rasmussen (1852-1926) was a Dane, a Jutlander born in Sæby, who established a newspaper and printing firm in Chicago after his arrival in 1874, despite considerable competition. Like John Anderson (1836-1910), the Norwegian publisher of the most widely distributed Nordic news organ Skandinaven (established in Chicago a generation earlier), Rasmussen had been a printer by trade and had begun by acquiring presses and operating a network of press shops. From 1881 to 1890 he offered a general interest weekly, the Illustreret Ugeblad (Illustrated Weekly Blade) that in addition to news carried serialized novels and home advice columns for its chiefly urban readership. The field was crowded - Marion Marzolf has counted thirty-four Danish and twenty-four Dano-Norwegian newspapers across the midwest during the last decades of the nineteenth century ("The Danish Language Press in America," Norwegian-American Studies 28 (1979), 274-289, here at 278). Perhaps for this reason, in 1887 Rasmussen removed to Minneapolis, where the western expansion of the Northern Pacific Railroad was attracting a fresh influx of Scandinavian immigrants. There the newspaper continued (now simply titled Ugebladet [The Weekly Blade]), alongside Rasmussen's other publishing ventures, until 1929. ~ It is worth remarking that the news content of the papers sent to different population centers was essentially compiled from major newspapers of the day, a circumstance not irrelevant to the notion of publishing cookbooks, especially with unattributed recipes, under different imprints located in different urban centers. Another homogenizing element also deserves notice: although the positing of the construct Dano-Norwegian (after 1929 officially called Bokmål) testifies to the high degree of mutual intelligibility among dialects, books such as Skandinavisk Illustreret Kogebog also bring to the fore just how much guidance might have been appreciated in the 1880s by speakers of Danish, Norwegian, and even Swedish Americans. Examples can be supplied from the ingredients for the sample recipes listed above. According to the list of correspondences between Danish and Norwegian household terms (pages [287]-289), Norwegians conflated red cabbage with kohlrabi, and what Danes called brown sugar (puddersukker) Norwegians identified as raw sugar (raasukker). ~ Age-toned. Hinges starting; with a closed tear to the front free endpaper. In publisher's dark green boards with decorative border stamp and lettering enclosed in a gilt design; corners bumped. Still very good, and quite sharp looking. Scarce. [OCLC locates nine copies (also several copies of the later Rasmussen imprints issued from Minneapolis); not in Bitting, Cook, Brown, or Cagle].
London: Dulau & Company, Ltd, 1929. Octavo (21.5 x 15 cm.), vii, [1], 133, [3] pages. Illustrated Frontispiece. Top edge gilt. FIRST EDITION, limited to one thousand copies, each SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR (this is no. 978). A great classic of food writing, and an important book for all interested in northern tree fruits and berries. Also contains sections on nuts and grapes. The book is a learned recitation of the qualities, distinctions, difficulties, and histories of specific varieties, presented by a student of fine fruit with a refined palate and a gift for the pen. "In the vast literature which deals with food and its appreciation I have searched for thirty years to find a precedent for a book devoted to the dessert. The great classic authors of France have left it untouched, nor can I find in any language a treatise on this crucial subject, which may so easily make or mar a well-planned meal" (page v). This cataloguer must admit that Bunyard has provided guidance in his own selection of fruit trees to propagate, and that he has frequently been frustrated by these more finicky cultivars. A bit of light spotting to a few pages, and some light foxing to edges. In publisher's green buckram, gilt-titled at the spine, and with edges beveled. The publisher's dust jacket, titled and illustrated in burgundy, has some toning at the edges and one small chip at edge. Generally, very good. [Bitting, page 68].
Evansville, Ind: Journal Co., Printers and Binders, 1885. Evansville, Ind.: [The Church; Printed by] Journal Co., Printers and Binders, 1885. [St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Evansville, Ind.); Ladies of the Church]. Octavo (21.5 x 14.75 cm.), 81 pages. Illustrated head- and tailpieces. Advertisements. Index. Cover title: The Perfect Cook. ~ Evident second edition (by inference). An early church cookbook offered by a community nestled within a leafy corner of the largest city in southern Indiana, near the banks of the Ohio River. With approximately four hundred brief attributed recipes, including: Federal Rolls, Jennie Lind Cake, Rice Muffins, Flannel Cakes, Cream Fritters, Evansville Corn Cakes, (White) Bean Soup, Oyster Omelette, Turbot, Broiled Mutton Chops, Roast Goose, Sweet Pickled Cantaloupes, Butternut Pickles, Fricasseed Tomatoes, Potato Puffs, Fried (Sour) Apples, Orange Cake, Almond Custard Cake, Marguerites, Crullers, Lemon Pie, Yankee Pumpkin Pie, Charlotte Russe (four versions), Brown Betty, Peach Cobbler, Currant Wine. An unusual preponderance of the advertisements, incidentally, have to do with foodstuffs: baking ingredients, spices, teas, preserves, canned goods. ~ The congregation of St. Paul's traces its origins to a missionary presence in southern Indiana recorded in 1836, but the sanctuary that still serves it, at Southeast First and Chestnut Streets, dates to a half-century later - 1886 - and thus provides the likely motivation behind The Improved Edition of the Perfect Cook. The neo-Gothic building was constructed of Indiana limestone, proving a bulwark against wind and water, though the interior was destroyed in a great fire in 1938. Restorations and more than a few renovations testify to a resilience that draws energy from its active inner-city engagement, and St. Paul's Episcopal retains a prominent landmark profile in the Riverside neighborhood of Evansville's historic district. ~ In publisher's gilt-stamped green cloth, with a small ink stain to the front board and a tiny bit of wear to edges, otherwise bright and clean. Interior clean, but for a few stained pages among the handwritten recipes at rear. Rare. [OCLC locates two copies (no copies of a presumed first edition are known); Cook, page 72; Brown 992; not in Bitting or Cagle].
Oneida, New York: The Burt Olney Canning Co, 1910. Booklet, stapled in wrappers ( 17.5 x 12.5 cm.), 32 pages. Illustrated. Stated "eighth edition". A product cookbook selling the "Absolutely Pure" products of the Burt Olney Canning Co., and bearing the image of "Olney's Pure Food Boy" on the rear wrapper and on the first page. Includes recipes, menus, and some shopping hints. Light tideline to a few pages; some very light soil internally. Wrappers decorated with an image of a boy holding a pumpkin. This copy with the promotional space printed with the message, "Compliments of Bicknell Bros., Madison, N.Y."
Indianapolis, Indiana: Indianapolis Journal Company, Printers, 1873. Octavo (22 x 14 cm.), 64 pages. Advertisements. Evident FIRST EDITION. One of the earliest recipe collections associated with the Hoosier State, and the first church cookbook known to have been published in Indianapolis. With one hundred sixty recipes, most of them attributed (at least with initials), including: Gumbo Soup (made with young "ocher"), Cream Toast, Sugar Biscuit, Oyster Salad, Chicken Croquettes, Spiced Beef, Potato Rissoles, Salsify, Cucumber Sauce, Martemans, Hodge Podge, Pear Pickle, Tomato Preserves, Crab Apple Jelly, Indiana Pudding, Apple Custard Pie, Gooseberry Tart, Hickory-Nut Macaroons, Almond Cake, Ma's Blackberry Wine. ~ A society and vestry having been formed in 1837, the cornerstone of the original Episcopal Church of Indianapolis was laid in May 1838, very near the center of Indianapolis. The graceful Gothic Revival edifice that stands on the site today was initiated in similar fashion twenty years later - though some names have changed since then: Christ Church, located at the intersection of Corner Circle and Meridian Street, is now Christ Church Cathedral, and the intersection is now at Monument Circle - renamed in honor of a Civil War memorial that was but an aspiration at the time Edibilia was published. Designed by a recent immigrant from Ireland, William Tinsley (1804-1885), the new stone building was praised upon its dedication in 1859 as "the handsomest church in Indiana" even before the chime of bells had been hung (1861) and the spire atop the belfry erected (1869), according to an early witness (William Robeson Holloway, Indianapolis: A Historical Sketch of the Railroad City [Indianapolis: Journal Print, 1870], pages 203-204). ~ In 1872, a former rector of Christ Church, Joseph Cruikshank Talbot (1816-1883), succeeded to the post of Bishop of Indiana, whereupon he established a mission to serve the immigrant communities of the city's Old Southside. St. George's mission church, established in 1873, would operate as an extension of Christ Church, and offers a likely motivation for the very considerable fundraising effort represented by Edibilia (if the ample presence of full-page advertisements for local businesses can serve as gauge). St. George's was organized as a church in 1880, and would later become a parish on its own, until the succession of St. Timothy's suburban mission to Southside, in 1959. ~ It should be noted, to forestall confusion, that Christ Church was consecrated as pro-Cathedral (a denotation for an episcopal seat that also serves as a parish church) only in 1954. Until that date, the designation belonged to the neighboring Church of All Saints on the north side, whose descendant congregation maintains, uniquely within the diocese, an Anglo-Catholic orientation. ~ Age-toned and spot-stained, with many pages pulling. In publisher's green cloth, decoratively titled in gilt. Handwritten recipes in pencil distributed throughout, and several newspaper clippings pasted down. Inscription in ink on flyleaf ("Christmas 1873, C. J. Shellman from her niece Annie M. Boggs"). This exemplar without the photographic illustration of the church that, in some extant copies, was pasted to the verso of the title page, over an epigraph entitled "Matrimonial" by Jacqueline Holliday. Scarce. [OCLC locates six copies; Cook, page 71; Brown (987) acknowledges only an alternate title: Edibilia: ABC of Valuable Private Receipts; not in Bitting or Cagle].
Terre Haute, Ind: [The Church; Printed by] George H. Hebb Press, 1885. [Central Presbyterian Church (Terre Haute, Ind.); Ladies of the Church]. Octavo (19 x 13 cm.), 128 pages. Advertisements. Blank pages interleaved. Cover title: True Blue Cook Book. ~ Evident FIRST EDITION. An early church cookbook from the "highland" overlooking the eastern banks of the Wabash River, the very landscape memorialized by Paul Dresser in what would presently become Indiana's state song. With three hundred recipes, perhaps half of them attributed; among them: Spiced Beef, Baked Eggs, Caper Sauce, Pickled Oysters, Chow Chow, Ripe Tomato Pickles, Stewed Celery, Succotash of Green Beans, Browned Parsnips, Chicken Salad (with egg yolks), Pumpkin Pie, Frosted Currant Pie, Blackberry Pudding, Orange Shortcake, Lemon Puffs, Fig Cake, Banana Cake, Plum Butter, Pineapple Ice. A point of interest is an advertisement on the rear panel entitled "Mrs. Ewing says Successful Cookery Depends Largely on Good Tools to Work With" - a notice to retailers, "making selections for [their] culinary department[s]." The educator Emma Pike Ewing (1838-1917) would have been known to the public for her Cooking and Castle Building (Boston: J. R. Osgood, 1880) and possibly, too, for her series of "cookery manuals" published in the 1880s by Fairbanks, Palmer of Chicago. The endorsement may be taken as an early example of the promotion by a cooking-school author for a wholesaler, in this case Townley Metal of Kansas City. The name of the hardware distributor receiving the endorsement would also have been recognized, if for strictly local reasons: James Philander Townley (1848-1928, a member of Central Presbyterian) was the son of one of the brothers whose fortune would be made as the proprietor of Townley Stove Company, Terre Haute. ~ Presbyterian missionaries from Cincinnati traveled to the newly platted village of Terre Haute before 1820, and a congregation of eleven members organized as early as May 1828, a few years before the village incorporated as a town. The growing membership met in the courthouse, as did Methodists and Baptists, until their spacious building at Seventh and Mulberry Streets, begun during the Civil War, was completed in 1867. In 1848 a contingent of Congregationalists - some of them former members of the Presbyterian Church - had formed a community known as Baldwin Church, and in 1879 the Presbyterians united with the Baldwin Church to form Central Presbyterian (according to information recorded by an early member, Blackford Condit, in The Early History of Terre Haute [New York: A. S. Barnes, 1900], here at page 87; it should be noted that other versions of the story implicate a Second Presbyterian Church). At the same time as the merger, coincidentally, an early claim to local prestige attached to the congregation as the home of the first King's Daughters Circle in Indiana, founded by the 1879 graduating class of young women in the Sunday school. In 1883 the structure was expanded to accommodate Central Presbyterian's increase, and so it might be guessed that the appearance of The True Blue Cook Book may have been timed in response to the need for necessary furnishings. ~ In publisher's paper-covered blue boards, decorated and titled in black, backed in royal blue cloth. Text block clean and bright. Free front endpaper wanting, with a modern binding tape repair to the hinge. Closed tears to two page forecorners. One recipe handwritten in pencil. Rare. [OCLC locates two copies (Indiana Historical Society & Missouri Historical Society; Cook, page 72; not in Bitting, Brown, or Cagle].
Sala Bolognese: Arnaldo Forni Editore, 1982. Testi antichi di gastronomia, no. 2. Duodecimo (18 x 13 cm.), xii, 112, [8] leaves. Pagination repeats leaves 105-111; leaf 112 misnumbered "212." Text in Italian. FACSIMILE EDITION of the 1557 Venice printing, "Per gli heredi di Gioanne Padoano, MDLVII". The second cookbook attributed to Cristoforo di Messisbugo (d. 1548) whose works, along with those of Scappi, are an important source for Renaissance-era cooking. Messisbugo was a steward and Italian Renaissance cook at the House of Este in Ferrara. His first cookbook, Banchetti, composizioni di vivande e apparecchio generale (1549), was published posthumously. It is addressed to those preparing princely feasts and provides detailed descriptions of banquet menus. Libro novo, attributed to him and published well after his death, is largely a repetition of the recipes in Banchetti. "Some of the dishes he described survive today in the Ferrara area. The first known reference to the preparation of Beluga sturgeon caviar (from the Po River) in Italy is in Messisbugo's books. He described serving and preserving caviar" (Wikipedia). The introduction is by Giuseppi Montavano, an Italian food historian and author of Laboratorio del gusto Storia dell'evoluzione gastronomica. In white buckram, gilt-titled on the spine and front panel. In light gray dust jacket, titled and decorated in black and red. Slight soil to dust jacket, otherwise fine. With the bookplate of the Charles Sontheimer Foundation. Sontheimer was the creator of the Cuisinart and a significant collector of cookbooks. Scarce.
New York: A. S. Barnes & Company, 1875. Octavo (19 x 12.5 cm.), 144 pages. Table of contents. Running header: Receipts. Date of publication estimated from external evidence. ~ Evident FIRST EDITION with this title; later printing of The Great Western Cook Book; or, Table Receipts Adapted to Western Housewifery (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1857), and the only known copy with this title. The culinary address here is assigned on the basis of the original source, the first cookbook known to have been published in Indiana, Mrs. Collins' Table Receipts, Adapted to Western Housewifery (New Albany, Indiana: Published by Jno. R. Nunemacher, 1851). With approximately three hundred fifty recipes, including: California Soup (dehydrated broth stock), Rough and Ready Soup, Carrot Soup, Codfish Pie, Roast Oysters, Braised Turkey, Sausage Hoosier Fashion, Pork Apple Pie, Succotash à la Tecumseh, (Mashed) Potatoes and Onions, Fried Parsley, Sorrel Sauce, Indiana Sauce (with horseradish, mustard, and celery seed), Mushroom Catsup, Peach Salad (with brandy), (Preserved) Whortleberries, Plum Butter, Mangoes (i.e., pickled muskmelons), Green Gages, Pickled Walnuts, Sour Kraut, Egg Bread, Mrs. Collins' Batter Cakes, Ratafias, Corn Fritters, Chestnut Pudding, Quince Pudding, Gooseberry Cheese, Pumpkin Yankee Fashion, Whip Syllabub, Ratifia of Coffee, Apple Toddy. A point of clarification: for Mrs. Collins, ratafias were biscuits made with ground almonds; for cordials and liqueurs of the type called ratafia today, she used the older spelling ratifia. ~ Angelina Maria Lorraine (Mrs. James) Collins (1805-1885) hailed originally from Virginia, but moved to Indiana when her husband began a law practice there. James Collins (1802-1869), also born in Virginia, had grown up in Louisville, Kentucky, across the Ohio River from New Albany where the couple would establish themselves in 1830. Acceding to prominence as a lawyer, James Collins eventually served in the state assembly, a member of the anti-slavery faction of the Whig Party, before the latter's effective extinction in 1856. For many years a school teacher, Angelina Collins earned a reputation for herself not only in abolitionist circles, but also, as a devout Methodist, among advocates for temperance. Two years after the appearance of her cookbook, she published a novel in which the evils of drink are played out, Mrs. Ben Darby; or, The Weal and Woe of Social Life (Cincinnati: Moore, Anderson, Wilstach, & Keys, 1853). ~ The contents of The Great American Cook Book are identical to those of the 1851 original, which had been published by the author's neighbor, the proprietor of a bookshop and printing house in New Albany. And they were identical again to those of The Great Western Cook Book, the title chosen after rights had been acquired by the publisher Alfred Smith Barnes (1817-1888), newly ensconced in New York. Barnes had learned the publishing trade in Hartford and Philadelphia before the century's midpoint, carving out a sizable niche in the market for educational texts, school primers, and teachers' guides. In 1857, when The Great Western Cook Book appeared, the Chicago printer D. B. Cooke and Company advertised as the "Western Publishers of the National Series of School Books published by A. S. Barnes & Co., New York" (e.g., in the Fifth Annual Review of the Commerce [...] of Chicago, wrapper, page [ii]) - a circumstance that suffices to explain why at least one instantiation of the 1857 edition has been recorded under the Cooke imprint (Lowenstein 723). A later dated printing (1864) is known to have been issued by Barnes in New York, but a number of undated printings may be later still. No firm date of publication can be assigned to The Great American Cook Book, but the change in title from "Western" to "American" suggests a marketing decision that is at least consistent with the scramble on the part of publishers across the country to exploit the public's anticipatory euphoria during the run-up to the centennial festivities of 1876. But while the author's preface from the original edition of 1851 addressing "Ladies of the West" is now directed to "Ladies of America" - indeed, the word "America" is visibly discernible as an overlay text - there is no compelling reason to suppose that she collaborated with Barnes in altering the title. Well before this time, in any case, the Collins house on Main Street had been sold (in 1865), and at some point, presumably after the death of her husband a few years later, Angelina Collins relocated to the home of her son, in Salem, Indiana. ~ Light foxing to endpapers and a few small and light spots throughout; one leaf dog eared. In publisher's brick-red cloth, with title in a medallion the shape of a serving tray. Some rubbing and wear to extremities; otherwise very good. [OCLC locates no printings with this title; Bitting, page 95, Lowenstein 525, 722-723, and Cagle 171-172 acknowledge only the editions with earlier titles of 1851 and 1857; not in Brown].
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