Description

[004892] Raffald, Elizabeth. The Experienced English Housekeeper, for the Use and Ease of Ladies, Housekeepers, Cooks &c. London: R. Baldwin, 1782. Reprint. 8vo. Hardback. Fair. [5], ii-iii, [1], plates, [1], 2-384pp, [16]. Contemporary sheep, later rebacked, raised bands, spine in six panels, title in blind to second panel, date to foot

Head of spine chipped with loss, split to upper joint but holding well, leather heavily rubbed and scraped with some loss to covers, corners bumped and worn with loss. Frontispiece and title browned and foxed, some light foxing and browning to text, but tolerably clean

With an engraved portrait frontispiece, three folding plates, and the printed signature of Raffald to the first page of text. The Eighth edition, it was first published in 1769, and this is apparently the first edition with a portrait. Of the three plates, two show place settings, and one shows the design of three stove-fires

Elizabeth Raffald (1733-81), cook and author, was initially a housekeeper, later marrying and settling in Manchester having sixteen daughters in eighteen years. Initially a confectioner, later a publican, “she was a woman of much shrewdness, tact and strength of will, and had, with other accomplishments, a good knowledge of French. She gave lessons to young ladies in cookery and domestic economy … R. Baldwin, the London publisher, is reported to have paid Mrs. Raffald £1400 for the copyright in 1773. Her portrait, from a painting by P. McMorland, first came out in the eighth edition, 1782 … In 1772 she compiled and published the first Directory of Manchester and Salford … she also wrote a book on midwifery … but did not live to print it” (ODNB)

Bitting, page 387; Cagle 947; Mclean, page 123; Oxford, page 99