Tilton, E. Stevens, Mrs

Home Dissertations: an offering to the household for economical and practical skill in cookery, orderly domestic management, and nicety in the appointments of home : excerpts from favorite authors.

New York: Hunter & Beach, Publishers, 1886, ©1885.

Quarto (24 x 20 cm.), 174 pages. Illustrated. Advertisements on plates, tipped-in separately throughout. Evident FIRST EDITION, later printing. Two printings were issued in 1885 by J.H. Magruder in Washington D.C. and by H. Jevne in Los Angeles. Between 1885 and 1891, eight printings were issued by seven different publishers in seven cities. A promotional cookbook of Victorian style, apparently intended to advertise various grocers and retailers of household items. The contents of the various printings were identical except for the ads. The recipes are in narrative form, and quite aspirational. English Green Goose, Russian Caviare, Palestine Soup (with Jerusalem artichokes, and A Delicate Roast Pig. Opposite the Pork section, a chromolithographed advertisement for Hams and Bacon from F.A. Ferris & Company of New York City. We've been unable to find much at all about Mrs. E. Stevens Tilton. The nature of the changing advertisements makes it difficult to determine the completeness of any copy of this work. In this copy, advertisements for Sapolio and the Charles Dickle Riding Academy are pasted over the front and rear decorated endpapers, and the free endpapers in the front and rear are not present. An odd production to say the least. Some foxing throughout, and a few pages with light creases. In publisher's decorated olive green cloth, with red Victorian-styled illustration and title. Binding soiled and corners rubbed. A good copy. [OCLC locates sixteen copies of this printing (and forty two of all other printings combined); Axford, page 206; Bitting, page 461; Brown 44, Cagle 750 (later printing)].

Price: $90.00