Bar-Tender's Guide [aka How to Mix Drinks] by THOMAS Jerry - 1862

1862. First Edition . THOMAS, Jerry. The Bar-Tender's Guide, a Complete Cyclopaedia of Plain and Fancy Drinks. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, (1862). Octavo, original rose-colored cloth. $9000.First edition, third state, of the first drink manual published in the United States, prepared by the bartender at the Metropolitan Hotel in New York, illustrated with numerous in-text wood-engravings, including a diagram of a still.Jerry Thomas (to whom the famous Savoy Cocktail Book is dedicated) presents 236 recipes for social drinks ""apart from water and those of the breakfast and tea-table."" ""It struck us that a list of all the social drinks of America would really be one of the curiosities of jovial literature; and that if it was combined with a catalogue of the mixtures common to other nations [463 additional recipes, provided by Christian Schultz], and made practically useful by the addition of the concise description of the various processes for 'brewing' each, it would be a 'blessing to mankind.'"" Before The Bar-Tender's Guide, knowledge of cocktails and their recipes was largely a matter of oral tradition in the United States; its author is today regarded as ""the father of American mixology."" First edition, third state, with the price $2.50 on the front cover; the publishers printed and sold approximately 8000 first edition copies, first priced at $1.50, then $2.00, then $2.50. The earlier copies were titled The Bar-Tender's Guide, as here—other copies priced at $2.50 can be found titled How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, presumed to appear later. Four leaves of advertisements at rear. Cagle & Stafford 743 [How to Mix Drinks title page]. Simon 1461. See Bittings, 459. Early owner signatures and ink stamps.A few minor spots to generally clean interior; original cloth expertly restored. A very good copy, scarce and desirable in the original cloth.