Culinary Ephemera from Rabelais - Fine Books on Food & Drink

Wien, [Vienna]: Druck von Paul Gerin, Wien II, Circusgasse 13, 1900. Menu booklet (25.5 x 17 cm.), [8] pages. Printed in blue and gold, with dishes mostly manuscript. An extensive menu for Vienna's grand Hotel Imperial. Sections (titled in German, French, and English) include Luncheon, Hors d'Oeuvres, Soupes, Fishes, Beefs, Vegetables, Entrees, Roasts, Salade, Sweetmeats, Dessert, and on the… Read more about this item

Wien [Vienna]: Druck von Paul Gerlin, 1908. Broadside menu (17.5 x 11 cm.), [1] page, printed recto only in black and titled in gilt and embossed; gilt-edged. Menu for dinner at the Grand Hotel Vienne. William Pembroke Fetridge's American Travelers' Guide described the Grand Hotel as a "Splendid first-class Hotel, situated in the most fashionable and frequented part of… Read more about this item

San Buenaventura [Ventura; San Francisco: the lodge; Brunt Co. Press], 1906. Die-cut and de-bossed menu & program, on cord and with a single staple (5.5 x 19 cm.), [8] pages, plus wrappers. Illustrated with ornaments on three pages. Text in red and green. A most unusual banquet menu, die-cut in the shape of a jalapeno pepper, an appropriate shape… Read more about this item

St. Louis, Mo: the restaurant; A. DeBolt & Co. [printer, 1880. Bi-fold menu (21.5 x 14 cm.), [4] pages. Printed menu, with handwritten additions. Publication date from external data. St. Louis' "What Cheer Restaurant" was opened in 1877, at the "Cor. Third and Washington Ave. [Bridge Approach]", a location that appears to have been obliterated with the construction of… Read more about this item

[Columbus, Ohio: the club], 1947. Menu, folded in ribbon-tied wrappers (15 x 11.5 cm.), [4] pages, plus wrappers. Mimeograph printed menu and program for the Mothers and Wives Club of the US Army 37th Division. The banquet was held at Columbus, Ohio's Seneca Hotel. The booklet contains the menu (a thoroughly mid-century midwestern affair with Fruit Cup, Well-brown Fried… Read more about this item

San Francisco: The Lehner and Sefert Publishing Company, 1915. Quarto (28.5 x 20.5 cm.), [7], 8-144, [1] pages. Illustrated throughout. Color illustrated second title. Advertisments. [WITH:] Three menus featured in the book, including: Banquet du Congress Hoteliers des Alpes. Lyon, 1905 (printed on silk); Menu from the Savoy Hotel, Cairo, 1903 (similar to the Kitchener Banquet menu page 79);… Read more about this item

San Francisco, Cal, 1937. Bi-fold menu bound with cord and mounted on wrapper, as issued (22.5 x 29 cm.), [2] pages. Illustrated by Wyman Taylor (1890-1972). Banquet menu for a dinner honoring Bert Walker, President of the San Francisco Rotary Club. The fanciful menu purports to be a radio broadcast "being broadcast over station B.U.R.P. in the Owl Room… Read more about this item

Denver: [publisher not identified], 1881. Menu and program (16 x 9 cm.), two separate cards, printed versos and rectos, [4] pages. Illustrated. Printed menu and program of the Society's first annual banquet held January 25, 1881, at the Windsor Hotel. The Society of Colorado Pioneers was founded in 1872 to recognize and assist those who had arrived in Colorado… Read more about this item

[New York]: Lith. of W. Faust, 105 Nassau St, 1860. Broadside wine list (25.5 x 15.5 cm.), [1] page. Porcelain card decorated in chromolithograph with text in blue and red. A very early wine list from an important New York hotel and dining establishment. The hotel was at the corner of Broadway and Eleventh Street, across from Grace Church… Read more about this item

New York: A.J. White, Druggist, 1888. Duodecimo-sized booklet (15 x 9 cm.), 48 pages. Illustrated. Advertisements. FIRST & ONLY EDITION. Issued by the A.J. White company, this almanac advertised their products, which were licensed from, and in some cases, made by the Shakers. Though not indicated as an almanac on the cover, a calendar for 1889 is included. Features… Read more about this item

Chicago: Charles T. Powner Co., 176 Plymouth Court; [Buchanan Company, Ltd., 7522 Sheridan Rd, 1934. Small octavo in wrappers, stapled (17 x 12 cm.), 128 pages. Index. FIRST EDITION THUS. An enlarged and re-titled edition of a Pre-Prohibition bar manual, Tom & Jerry's Bartender's Guide, How to Mix Drinks, now published at the onset of Repeal. The book was… Read more about this item

Chicago, IL; Windsor, Canada: H.E. Bucklen & Co, 1902. Booklet, stapled in wrappers (23 x 17 cm.), 32 pages. Publisher's advertisements on inner wrapper flaps. Illustrated. Text in double columns. Title from cover. ~ An annual advertising recipe book in almanac form with calendars for 1902 and 1903, from the company that brought us Dr. King's Electric Bitters and… Read more about this item

Lakewood; New York: The hotel; The Gile Company, Lith, 1891. Printed menu (20 x 13.5 cm.), [1] page. A menu for the Lakewood, a resort hotel in the town of the same name, in central New Jersey, near but not on the shore. The meal was rather elaborate, with courses of soup, joints, entreés, roast, salads, vegetables, entremet, pastry,… Read more about this item

Providence, RI: Rumford Chemical Works, 1881. Stapled booklet, cord-sewn in wrappers (18 x 11.5 cm.), 32 pages. Illustrated. Advertisements. A combined almanac and recipe book, with an emphasis on recipes using Horsford's Bread Preparation. With calendar and ephemeris. Publisher's chromolithograph wrappers contain an image of Dignity and Impudence depicting dogs representing each characteristic (no surprise my dog is the… Read more about this item

Dover, Mass: Manufactured solely by E.F. Hodgson, 1898. Booklet, stapled in wrappers (20 x 13 cm.), 39, [1] pages. Illustrated with photographic reproductions and line drawings in the text. Evident FIRST EDITION. A trade catalogue for poultry breeding supplies and poultry. Ernest Franklin Dodgson's Peep-o'-Day Poultry Specialties was later to be rolled into Cornell Incubator Manufacturing. Fine in publisher's… Read more about this item

Albany, N.Y.: Dr. Herrick & Co, 1867. Duodecimo sewn on cords, in wrappers (16 x 10 cm.), 32 pages. Illustrated. An annual product cookbook, advertising various patent medicine pills, powders, plasters and more from Dr. Herrick & Co., Manufacturing Chemists. The almanac contains culinary recipes, as well as recipes for household needs and medicinal cures. Advertisements for various medicines… Read more about this item

[Springfield, Mass.]: Samuel Bowles & Company, Printers, 1862. Booklet in cord-sewn wrappers (17.5 x 11.5 cm.), 1-26 pages. Illustrated. Title and publication data from wrapper. At head of wrapper title, "Price 10 Cents". Publication date from wrapper; prefatory note, page [1] signed, "H. Hutchins. Springfield, Mass., May, 1860"; copyright date of 1858 from head of page 1. Evident Second… Read more about this item

Hartford, Conn: the hotel, 1870. Broadsheet menu (22.4 x 14.4 cm.), [2] pages, printed recto and verso. Decorated with an ornamental border and American flag on the recto; simple border on verso. A bill of fare for the hotel restaurant for a single day, with coach schedule. Nine courses are listed on the Bill of Fare, including Soup, Fish,… Read more about this item

New York: Famous Music Corp., 1619 Broadway, 1934. Music score, stapled in wrappers (31 x 23 cm.), 5, [1] pages. FIRST EDITION. The famous "Cocktails for Two" debuted in the movie Murder at the Vanities (1934), where it was introduced by singer and actor Carl Brisson. Duke Ellington's orchestra recorded the Johnston and Coslow song in 1934, all on… Read more about this item

Henniker, N.H.[?], 1906. Tall octavo (42 x 17 cm.), [approx. 150] pages. An account book of an unidentified New Hampshire butcher working in the 1840's. The individual accounts identify customers at the top of each page, with names including John Slade, Joseph S. Newhall, Hammon Hall, William Oliver, Nathaniel Mansfield, G.H. Hardy, and others. Items sold include Lamb, Beef,… Read more about this item