Madam Johnson's Present: or, the best instructions for young women, in useful and universal knowledge. With a summary of the late Marriage Act, and Instructions how to marry purinant thereto. Digested under the following Heads. I. An Estimate of the Expences of a Family in the middling Station of Life. II. The Art and Terms of Carving, Fish, Fowl, and Flesh. III. A Bill of Fare for every Month in the Year for Dinner and Supper, and also for extraordinary Occasions. IV. The Young Woman's Guide to Knowledge. V. A new English Spelling Dictionary. VI. The Compleat Market-Woman. Vii. The Cook's Guide for dressing all Sorts of Flesh Fowl and Fish. Viii. Pickling, Pastry, and Confectionary. With several useful tables, being the compleatest Book of the Kind ever published
by Johnson, Mary
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Alfred, Maine, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Printed for M. Cooper, Pater-Noster-Row; and C. Sympson, at the Bible, Chancery-Lane, 1755. Duodecimo (17 x 10 cm.), [2], ii, [1], vi-xiv, 222, [2] pages. Collation: A7, B-T6, U4. Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait, and head- and tail-pieces; initials. Title in red and black. Table of contents at rear; final contents leaf. FIRST EDITION, third issue; a reissue of the sheets of The Young Woman's Companion, London, 1753, with a new title page and 'A Summary of the late Marriage Act'. The sheets appeared with the current title in 1754. Mary Johnson had been a housekeeper in York. The frontispiece portrait of her is quite handsome. Gilly Lehman places this work amongst a number of mid-Eighteenth century cookbooks aimed at educating servants who were often seen as lazy or incompetent. These books tended to be purchased by the gentlewoman of the house and given as gifts to a maidservant, and Lehman suggests the revised title, Madame Johnson's Present, illustrates the book was given by the gentlewoman to the servant. Further, the new title would serve to attract the gentlewoman into buying it, whereas the original, The Young Woman's Companion might seem an inappropriate purchase for a Lady. The sections include instruction on grammar and spelling, arithmetic, and the duties of the servant towards her employer and towards God. Cookery recipes include carving, pickling, and pastry & confectionery. Internally clean and sound; some darkening to text block edges. In full calf, original boards, re-backed later, with gilt-titled burgundy spine label; some edge rubbing. Generally very good. With the bookplates of Arnold Muirhead and the Craig Collection. One early handwritten recipe on a rear blank. A few pencil bookseller notes to paste-downs. All early editions are very rare, only two copies (both of the 1754 issue) at auction in the last fifty years. [OCLC locates nine copies; Alston IV.611; English Short Title Catalog 106312; Maclean, page 77; Cagle, 782 (second edition of 1759); Bitting (second edition); Lehman. The British Housewife, page 429-30; Oxford, page 83; Vicaire, page 465].
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Details
- Bookseller
- Rabelais - Fine Books on Food & Drink
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 8299
- Title
- Madam Johnson's Present: or, the best instructions for young women, in useful and universal knowledge. With a summary of the late Marriage Act, and Instructions how to marry purinant thereto. Digested under the following Heads. I. An Estimate of the Expences of a Family in the middling Station of Life. II. The Art and Terms of Carving, Fish, Fowl, and Flesh. III. A Bill of Fare for every Month in the Year for Dinner and Supper, and also for extraordinary Occasions. IV. The Young Woman's Guide to Knowledge. V. A new English Spelling Dictionary. VI. The Compleat Market-Woman. Vii. The Cook's Guide for dressing all Sorts of Flesh Fowl and Fish. Viii. Pickling, Pastry, and Confectionary. With several useful tables, being the compleatest Book of the Kind ever published
- Author
- Johnson, Mary
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Printed for M. Cooper, Pater-Noster-Row; and C. Sympson, at the Bible, Chancery-Lane
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1755
- Keywords
- cookbook, english cookery, english cookbook, home economics, english cooking, eighteenth century, first edition
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About the Seller
Rabelais - Fine Books on Food & Drink
Biblio member since 2006
Alfred, Maine
About Rabelais - Fine Books on Food & Drink
Rabelais is always serving up fine books about food, drink, farming and gardening. We carry a sizable stock of rare books, alongside prints, photographs and ephemera, all concerned with the pleasures of the senses.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Re-backed
- Describes a book that has had the material covering the spine replaced or joints mended.
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Calf
- Calf or calf hide is a common form of leather binding. Calf binding is naturally a light brown but there are ways to treat the...
- Text Block
- Most simply the inside pages of a book. More precisely, the block of paper formed by the cut and stacked pages of a book....
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
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