Description
[004894] A Lady; [Copley, Esther Hewlett] The New London Cookery and Complete Domestic Guide; The Cook’s Complete Guide, on the Principles of Frugality, Comfort, and Elegance: Including the Art of Carving, and of the Most Approved Method of Setting-Out a Table Etc. Etc. London: Tallis and Co., Reprint. 8vo. Hardback. Good. [3]-iv, [3], 2-838pp, n.d. but c.1836. Contemporary calf, later rebacked in cloth with original back strip laid on, smooth back, title in gilt to centre of spine, roll in blind to edges of covers, new endpapers
Slightly rubbed externally, gilt to spine faint. Text lightly browned, occasionally heavier, occasional light foxing, some foxing to plates, one heavily foxed, pen scribble to fore edge margin of 2B2, some damage to fore edge margin of 5G, especially 5G1, and a tear to fore edge of 5O2, but without loss
With an engraved frontispiece, additional engraved title, and ten plates as called for
The additional engraved title has the title The New London Cookery and Complete Domestic Guide, with the title page having the title starting The Cook’s Complete Guide, on the Principles of Frugality, Comfort, and Elegance. Written by Esther Copley (1786-1851), who was the authoress of the popular Cottage Comforts. Hewlett was from 1815 “a prolific author, publishing tales for children, tracts, works of domestic economy, and sacred history and biography. Cottage Comforts (1825), one of her earliest works, reached its eighth edition by 1831 and its twenty-fourth by 1864; a household management manual addressed to the labouring classes, it included chapters on renting and furnishing a cottage, brewing and baking, keeping animals, care and education of children, and the treatment of illnesses. Although it opened with a sententious section on the virtues essential to domestic comfort, Cottage Comforts was full of practical advice (the author had tried out her own recipes) and was forthright on such subjects as childbirth and constipation. Catechism of Domestic Economy (1850), The Comprehensive Knitting Book (1849), and The Young Servant’s Friendly Instructor (1827) were works in the same genre” (ODNB)
First published c.1827, this has one plate dated 1836
Bitting, page 99 (dated to c.1810); Cagle 633
