1.   Athenaeus, of Naucratis.
Athenaiou Deipnosophiston biblia pentekaideka = Athenaei Deipnosophistarum libri XV.  Cura & studio Isaaci Casauboni, bibliothecae Palatinae, Vaticanae, aliarumque ope, auctiores  emendatioresque editi.  Cum interpretatione Latina Jacobi Dalechampii Cadomensis.  Adiecti sunt Indices rerum, scriptorum, proveriorum, vocum, accuratissimi. 

2.  [Massialot, Francois].
Nouvelle Instruction pour les Confitures, les Liqueurs, et les Fruits : Ou l'on apprend a confire toutes sortes de Fruits, tant secs que liquides; & divers Ouvrages de Sucre qui  sont du fait des Officiers & Confiseurs; avec la maniere de bien ordonner un Fruit.  Suite du Nouveau Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois, egalement utile aux Maitres d'Hotels & dans les Familles, pour savoir ce qu'on sert de plus a la mode dans les Repas.  Tomme Troisieme. Nouvelle edition, Revue, corrigee, & beaucoup augmentee, Avec de nouveaux Desseins de Tables. 
Amsterdam: Aux Depens de la Compagnie, 1734.   4 leaves, [4], 362, [20] pp.  Three folding plates.  Index.

A rare early edition of Massialot's famous book on preserves, first published in 1692.  The author (ca. 1660-1733) was chef de cuisine to various French nobles, including the brother of Louis XIV and the dukes of Chartres, Orleans and Aumont.  His works were published anonymously and not widely circulated among the general public, but they were highly regarded by professional chefs and thus exerted a good deal of influence on the development of French cuisine.  The first section of this work discusses all aspects of making preserves, beginning with an explanation of selecting and clarifying sugar. The second chapter discusses the necessary utensils, and the third outlines, month by month, what fruits and flowers are in season and what preserves can be made from them. The chapters that follow discuss specific fruits and flowers, with recipes for their use in preserves, jellies, marmalades, tarts and fruit pies. The author concludes with a chapter on problems that may arise when making preserves and ways to remedy them.  The second part is devoted to recipes for liqueurs and the preparation of waters and beverages for each season.  The final section is an interesting discussion of fruit, where one learns the quality, merit and maturity of all sorts of fruits and how to serve them.  Light brown half-leather and paper covered boards, with raised bands and gilt-lettered morocco spine label. Boards well-rubbed and edge worn, small chip missing from corner of spine label (slightly affecting the "I" in "Instruction"). Modern bookplate to front pastedown, staining to several pages, otherwise a clean and tightly bound copy, better than good.

[Worldcat locates only two copies of this Amsterdam imprint, neither in North American collections; see Cagle 323; see Oberle 94-96; Vicaire 455].  $1000.00

Edinburgh: Printed for Alexander Donaldson, 1781.  Octavo,  vi, [18], 440, [24] pages.  Folding table.  Index.

Scarce Edinburgh edition of the most successful and influential English cookbook of the eighteenth century.  Hannah Glasse (1708-1770) was the wife of an attorney and the mother of eight children, and she published the first edition of her Art of Cookery -- a work she boasted "far exceeds any Thing of the Kind ever yet published" -- in 1747.  It went through eight editions in her lifetime and was not supplanted as a culinary authority until the work of Mrs. Isabella Beeton appeared in 1861.  The folding table that is published in this volume first appeared in a "new" edition in 1774.  Later full leather, with corners refreshed, gilt-lettered spine. Previous owner's bookplate to front pastedown, preliminary pages moderately foxed and with scattered light foxing to text, light additional wear, overall very good .

[Worldcat locates only a single copy,  at the Schlesinger Library; Cagle 695-706].   $1000.00 

Boston: Printed for W. Spotswood, 1798.  Octavo, xxiii, [1], 444 pp.  Twenty-four additional pages of illustrations of monthly bills of fare.  Table of contents.

Second American edition, improved. Briggs is identified on the title page as "many years cook at the Globe Tavern, Fleet-Street, the White Hart Tavern, Holborn, and now principal of the Temple Coffee-House, London."  The first edition of his English Art of Cookery was published in London in 1788, and the book quickly crossed the Atlantic to the newly independent United States.  The first American edition of the New Art of Cookery was published in Philadelphia in 1792, and this improved, second American edition soon followed.  An interesting case study in the transmission of texts. All early editions of Briggs's work are quite scarce. Period full leather, rebacked with modern leather and period gilt-lettered spine label. Paper age-toned, hinges repaired and reinforced, older leather well-rubbed, two leaves with closed tears, overall near very good. 

[Lowenstein 25; see also Axford, page 90; Bitting, page 60].   $2250.00

 

London: Printed for Jackson & Walford, 1834.  Small octavo,  xi, 407 pages. Engraved frontispiece, additional engraved title page, Four (of five) additional leaves of engraved plates.  Index.

First edition. Esther Hewlett Copley (1786-1851), the daughter of a wealthy silk merchant, turned to writing to support her family when her minister husband succumbed to the temptations of alcohol.  She became a prolific author of household management and cooking texts, as well as an active member of the abolitionist movement.  Contemporary three-quarter leather and marbled boards, with raised bands and gilt-lettered spine. Paper age-toned, and edgeworn in some cases. This copy lacking one of five plates on carving called for in the bibliographies, otherwise very good. A tightly bound and sound copy .

[Not in Attar; Axford, page 213; Bitting, pages 98-99; Cagle 635; Crahan 529].  $450.00

Chicago: by the author/Press of Knight & Leonard, 1880.  Octavo, 127 pages.

First edition. A collection of recipes for purportedly easy to digest foods for the convalescent. Includes interesting sections on waters, wheys and gruels. Light foxing to some pages. A bit of abrasion to the fore edge of the front board, otherwise near fine in publisher's bland and gilt-stamped brown cloth.

[Axford page 229; Brown 686; Cagle 608].   $90.00

Philadelphia: by the author/ George H. Buchanan & Co., 1902.  Octavo, 342, [14] pages. Ads.

First edition. A thorough recipe book for a wide variety of classic American candies. With advertisements for a variety of suppliers of confectioners' ingredients and equipment. The preface includes two interesting addresses: one to the workmen, encouraging them to cooperate with their bosses and not sulk if denied a requested wage hike, another to the boss, encouraging less yelling and cleaner, better lit workrooms. Previous owner's small ink name stamp to decorated front paste down and to title page, otherwise fine, in blind and gilt stamped burgundy cloth.

[Not in Bitting or Cagle; Worldcat locates 7 copies, just 5 in the US].  $200.00 

Brattleboro, VT.: Tatapochon Camp Fire Girls, 1918.  Octavo, 32 pages.

First and only edition. A slim wartime community cookbook, issued by a local Camp Fire Girls group at the tail end of the Great War. The Camp Fire Girls are listed, and the recipes are quite detailed, with precisely measured ingredients and clear steps. Staining throughout, but text is always legible. Printed brown wrappers chipped and split at the spine fold, but complete. A good copy.

[Worldcat locates only one copy, at the University of Vermont, Bailey Library].   $60.00  

Staffodville, CT: Ladies Aid Society, 1920.  Octavo-sized, cord-tied pamphlet, [16] pages. Advertisements.

First edition. The ices and ice creams section is most appealing, and includes a Nesselrode Pudding, which seems worth making when the weather warms up a bit. Fine in printed gray wrappers, tied with a red cord. Unrecorded.

[Worldcat locates no copies; not in Brown or Cagle]  $75.00 

London: Oxford University Press, 1936.  Octavo, xxxv, [1], 161 pages. Frontispiece.  Index.

First edition thus.   A fascinating work that illuminates the intersection of women's studies and food studies.  Ann Cook and Friend transcribes portions of the 1760 third edition of Mrs. Cook's Professed Cookery, in which the author appended a lengthy and misnamed "Plan of Housekeeping" to her collection of recipes.  The "Plan" offers an account of her life in service and of her experiences as an innkeeper's wife at Hexham and Morpeth in the north of England.   Mrs. Cook then veers away from autobiography to present the life and love-story of her friend "Abigail," before returning to her own trials and tribulations. These combined women's stories present a unique picture of country life in eighteenth-century England and make this work a minor early feminist classic.  This modern edition is rounded out with forty pages of recipes from Mrs. Cook's work. Brown cloth with gilt-lettered spine; in the scarce pictorial dust jacket. Jacket chipped along top edge and a trifle worn, otherwise very good or better. 

[Axford, page 13; Bitting, page 69; Maclean, p.35; Oxford, p.91].  $125.00