Murray's Modern Cookery Book. Modern Domestic Cookery: Based on the Well-Known Work of Mrs. Rundell, But Including All the Recent Improvements in the Culinary Art. Founded on Principles of Economy and Practical Knowledge, and Adapted for Private Families. By a Lady, with illustrative woodcuts, An entirely new and revised edition.
London: John Murray, Albemarle Street; Printed by W. Clowes & Sons, Stamford Street, 1853.
Small thick octavo (24.5 x 15.5 cm.), xxviii, 644 pages. Illustrated with a frontispiece and additional plate with full-page woodcuts, and numerous cuts in the text. Index. Second Printing of this newly-titled edition of Mrs. Rundell's Modern Domestic Cookery, considered "the earliest manual of household management with any pretensions to completeness, calling forth many imitations." Originally printed in late 1805 but dated forward to 1806, the book went through dozens of printings and was one of the most profitable books published by John Murray, frequently revised and reprinted under a variety of titles in both England and the United States throughout the nineteenth century. He liked it so much, that in 1851 he put his name in the title itself. Maria Eliza Ketelby Rundell (1745-1828), originally intended the book for use by her daughters, and borrowed a good number of the recipes in the original edition from her ancestor Mary Kettilby's book, A Collection of Above Three Hundred Receipts in Cookery, Physick and Surgery (1714). Early on, Mrs. Rundell expressed misgivings about Murray's handling of the book's fortunes. A legal injunction led to a stalemate, but publication continued, as is evidenced by this issue. Original blind-stamped and gilt-titled light brown cloth. Hinges tender; some light foxing to endpapers, otherwise near fine. Bookseller's ticket of "Edmonds & Remnants of London"; booksellers' ticket, "T.W. Clarke, Bookseller, Mansfield". [OCLC locates ten copies of this printing, and just three of the 1851 issue; Bitting 579 cf.; Cagle 893 (designating the 1851 issue a first edition, authored anonymously)].
Price: $300.00