A short list of items chosen for the RareBooksLA Virtual Fair, October 15-18, 2020. The focus is on California-related material, but there is still a wide range of item types: cookbooks (older and newer), menus, photographs , cocktail books, and some works from or about Mexico.
New York: Targ Editions, 1985. Quarto (29 x 20 cm.), 21 pages. FIRST EDITION, limited to 250 copies signed by the author. The twenty-fifth work published by Targ Editions. A short memoir of Fisher's early California life. In paste paper-covered boards over tan cloth with paper spine label. Some rubbing to bottom edge of boards, otherwise fine, in original glassine.
México: Tipografia Mexicana, calle de Cadena num 3, 1870. Octavo (19 x 12.5 cm.), 34 pages. Illustrated. Text in Spanish. FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. Off-printed from the Boletín de la Sociedad de Geografía y Estadística (title page). The author of this survey of Mexican olive production, García, José María ( –1890) was editor of La Revista Universal. Chapters include: Clima, terreno y preparación para la siembra del olivo, Multiplicación, Cultivo durante.....
[Dumfries]: printed for the author, [circa 1760]. Small octavos in 4s (15 x 9 cm.), 186 pages. FIRST EDITION, though priority not firmly established. MacLean states “another ed. Edinburgh: printed for E. Wilson at Dumfries, [c.1760]” (though that edition is dated, “M.DCC.LX” at the foot of the title page); the Wilson issue has 136 pages. Cagle refers to the Wilson issue as “Second Edition”. Both editions display the misspelled author’s.....
Los Angeles: [The League]; Privately Printed, 1930. Octavo (24 x 16 cm.), [viii], 215, [i] pages. Illustrated chapter heads. Advertisements. Cover title: Los Angeles Junior League Recipes. Editorial attribution from page [3]. ~ Evident FIRST EDITION. One of the earliest documented Junior League community cookbooks in a tradition that would not be firmly established until two decades later. Unusual in the context of charitable books, too, in that an outside.....
Cincinnati, Ohio: Lawlor & Co.; For sale by the R. Clarke Co., Hawley's and Union News Co., [1895]. Octavo (20 x 13.5 cm.), 169, [4], pages. Frontispiece. Copyright date from verso of dedication page. Advertisements. Very early edition. Not the "Revised Edition" which appeared slightly later. This issue is identical with the wrappered issue of the first edition through page 116, and concludes the recipe section with Tincture of Cinnamon.....
Berkeley, Calif. The Glozers, Booksellers, 1964. Octavo (23.5 x 15.5 cm.), [ii], 30 pages. Illustrated. Index. FIRST EDITION. A collection of fifty seafood recipes highlighting animals associated with the coastal waters between Berkeley and Mendocino. Includes generic recipes (Cold Fish Mold, Sweet-Sour Fish, Fish In Harbor), as well as concoctions with more fixed requirements (Abalone Supreme, Broiled Eels Sole en Papilotte). A selection of sauce suggestions is appended. The collaborators.....
[Los Angeles; San Francisco, California: Lucca, circa 1938]. Six items in all: 1. Photo album, “Photographs”, bound with cord (18 x 26 cm.), [8] pages. Nine original black & white photographs, mounted to album leaves. The photographs depict the exterior of the San Francisco Lucca’s decked out in its grand opening finery; the bakery with staff; the dining room with full from to house staff (and perhaps the owners?); wedding.....
[San Francisco]: 1892-1901. Duodecimo, about 50 pages. Manuscript in pencil and ink. Small, blank account book for a dry goods store, repurposed as a cellar book for A J. B. Reveyron, who is identified by Crocker-Langley's San Francisco Business Directory (1899), as a "cellarman" located at 135 Perry Street in San Francisco. The book, written in both French and English, records personal expenses, amounts of wine and spirits moving in.....
Santa Barbara: Press of Pacific Coast Publishing Co., 1909. Octavo (20.5 x 14.5 cm.), 256 pages. Index. Illustrated. Eight photographic plates precede the title-page. Evident FIRST EDITION. A community cookbook, in service of the Cottage Hospital, with a preface in verse with four stanzas. The recipes are attributed, and begin with a section of "Spanish Receipts" led with Delfina de la Guerra's Albondigas de Pescado, made with barracuda or sea.....
Los Angeles, Calif. Commercial Printing House, 1894. Octavo (22.25 x 15 cm.), [14], 382 pages. Illustrated. Index. Advertisements. List of contributors. Evident FIRST EDITION. "One of the best and most extensive local cook books ever compiled. The contributors include the leading names of Southern California, to mention a few: Mrs. R. M. Widney, the Bixby's, Mrs. M. M. Bovard, Mrs. S. C. Poy, Mrs. Jessie Benton Fremont, Frank A. Miller.....
[San Pedro, California: Trade Winds Publishing Co. Inc.; Schindler Printing Company, Inc., 1948. Quarto, stapled in wrappers (26 x 20 cm.), [32] pages. Illustrated. Frontispiece portrait of author. FIRST EDITION. A guide to reading leaves in a tea cup. Illustrated with fifteen images of tea leaves, photographed from above, surrounded by text with the author's interpretation. Includes a glossary of images with interpretations. Some light soiling, and a light tideline.....
San Francisco: Published by Town Talk Press, 88 First Street, 1916 copyright January 1, 1917. Tall octavo (28.5 x 18 cm.), 47, [3] pages. Illustrated wrappers with envelope fold. Includes the cancel leaf tipped-in at the rear, "Some War Recipes and Others". FIRST EDITION. An early and attractively produced San Francisco cookbook, issued as the city was finally putting the Great Earthquake behind it, but the nation was on the.....