A New System of Domestic Cookery, Formed upon Principles of Economy, and Adapted to the Use of Private Families. By a Lady by Rundell, Mrs. Maria Eliza (Ketelby) - 1807

London: Johnson, Chapman and Bell, 1852. Hardcover. Good. 24mo - over 5 - 5¾" tall. Good. Publishers cloth. Boards a little loose. Toned and foxed.

Halifax: Milner and Sowerby, 1858. NEW EDITION, third issue. Vigesimo-Quarto (very small). pp. lii, 376. With 9 engraved plates depicting the various edible animals and their joints. All edges untrimmed. In repaired contemporary maroon cloth with gilt and blind stamping. Re-backed using original cloth over spine and boards. Browning and spotting; small purple 6d stamp to front paste-down. Wear to cloth with little gilt remaining. Good overall. Mrs. Rundell's 'Domestic Cookery' was first published by her husband's friend John Murray in 1806, compiled from letters sent to her daughters. It became an instant classic, running through 65 editions in less than 40 years.

London, Thomas, Allman [n.d., ca. 1870]., 1870. Small 8vo. Engraved frontispiece; engraved titled with vignette. 11 plates. 419 pages + 4 pages publisher’s advertisements. Modern marbled boards; gilt stamped red leather spine label. Very good, fresh. No signatures or bookplates.. Hardcover.

John Murray, London, 1832 [2, blank], liv, 36*,37#, 448 printed pages. Complete with 9 engraved plates (two with historic repairs on the versos), somewhat foxed. Some gatherings becoming loose. Contemporary ink gift inscription on unnumbered preliminary page. Most leaves lightly foxed. Hinges split. 10.5 x 17 cm. Contemporary full and richly patinated vellum, slightly rubbed with missing triangle of vellum on the upper front hinge. Corners slightly worn. Recipes for stewed tongue, prawn curry, thornback, sauce Robart, buttered orange, many sophisticated now obsolete recipes; many instructions on dealing with servants. The Dictionary of National Biography: "the earliest manual of household management with any pretensions to completeness." The 1st edition of 1806 had only 290 pages. It went through dozens of editions, both legitimate and pirated, in both Britain and the United States (where the first edition was published in 1807).. Hardcover. Fair.

London: John Murray, 1822. New Edition [about 4th]. Very Good. With engravings showing some preparations and sectioning. The most influential and important early 19th century English cookbook; first published in 1806. Bound in contemporary marbled papers over boards with a leather spine and corners. Gilded banding on the spine and a black label with gilded lettering. General wear and rubbing to edges and covers with scuffing. Internally split between 'Direction to the Binder' and 'Contents' but all pages present and attached. Title and Advertisement page trimmed at the top (1/4 inch, no impact to text or content). Pages: (52) 348     Dimensions: 6¾ x 4¼ x 1¼  .

London: John Murray, 1840. Cloth. Good. 7" by 4.5". Henry Corbould; Alfred Adlard. A smart copy of this very successful work on domestic cookery by Maria Rundell. In the publisher's original cloth binding. Ink inscriptions to the front free end paper. Frontispiece depicting "domestic cookery" and a further 9 plates. Collated complete. Maria Rundell (1745-1828) was an English writer. In 1805, she sent an unedited collection of recipes and household advice to John Murray, of whose family she was a friend. This is the 64th edition of Rundell's book. Her work was a huge success; around half a million copies were sold in Rundell's lifetime. The book was aimed at middle-class housewives. It offers advice on economical food preparation, medical remedies, and how to set up a home brewery, and includes a section entitled "Directions to Servants". The book contains an early recipe for tomato sauce and the first recipe in print for Scotch eggs. In the publisher's original… Read More

London: John Murray, 1807. A New Edition, Corrected . Half-Leather. Good. Hardback. A good copy in a half leather binding with rather worn marbled boards. Rebacked with old spine laid down. Small bookplate, ownership inscription dated 1852 and some ink writing on front end-papers. Pp.[xxiv],xxx,351 + 1 page publisher's adverts. Frontispiece and 9 plates. Some foxing. A comprehensive general cookery book with Part XII being "Cookery for the Sick and for the Poor" and Part XIII being "Various Receipts and Directions to Servants." Also included are "Miscellaneous Observations for the Use of the Mistress of a Family." Has been described as "the most popular English cookbook of the first half of the nineteenth century.

Halifax: Milner and Sowerby, 1861. Very good plus.. Scarce Canadian edition of Rundell's guide to household management, first published by John Murray in 1806 to great and enduring popularity - with an incredible long folding wood-engraved frontispiece. The house of John Murray, 19th-century publishing titan and notorious destroyer of Byron's memoirs, owed a significant portion of its early financial success to Rundell's best-selling handbook, the first such book to be so thorough and well-ordered in its recipes and instructions on domestic economy. The author initially asked no payment for the publication of her manuscript, but the "dreadful blunders" left uncorrected in early editions along with Murray's cavalier and contemptuous disregard of her concerns for the text eventually drove her to offer a revised version to a rival publisher. After some legal proceedings, Rundell was left with a £2000 settlement and immortal fame, but without the rights to her own book. A classic. 5'' x 3''. Original… Read More