Delicate Feasting

New York: Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, 1890. Octavo (19 x 13.5 cm.), xii, 214 pages. Advertisements. Illustrations in the text. FIRST EDITION. An interesting and often charming late nineteenth-century American gastronomy book. The book goes to great lengths to compare American and British cooking with French, unfavorably. The author holds up Whistler's Peacock Room for the Leyland house as an example of a properly decorated dining room, and includes an interesting section on the history of dining tables, and another on accepting or declining dinner invitations from friends whose skill at providing a fine meal is lacking. And he thinks the sad state of dining in America needs governmental attention, to whit, "I have wondered, for instance, why, in countries where rational governments exist, and where a minister is appointed to attend to the the interests of the fine arts, with, under him, directors, deputy directors, and a dozen grades of minor functionaries, no emperor, king or republic has yet thought of creating a Minister of Gastronomy." Some light foxing, otherwise very good, in publisher's decorated cloth with an interesting, rug-like design in black, gold and silver. Very light edgewear and soil to cloth, otherwise near very good or better. Ownership signature in year of publication to front free end paper. [Bitting page 87].