Italian Confectioner
London, E.S. Ebers, 1844. Jarrin, W A. Italian Confectioner. E.S. Ebers: London, 1844. 12mo (210x130mm) xxxvi,[3],271,[1]pp
Second-hand hardcover
JARRIN, W A [Guglielmo 'William' Alexis (1784-1848)]
The Italian Confectioner; or, complete economy of desserts according to the most modern and approved practice.
London : E S Ebers and Co, 1844. New Edition, revised and enlarged (first published 1820). Printed by Tosswill & Co, London.
Duodecimo (210x130mm) original publisher's quarter bound brown cloth, boards, paper spine label, xxxvii,[3],271,[1]pp; [a]¹², b⁸, B-M¹², N⁴. Lithographed frontispiece portrait of the author with tissue-guard, two engraved folding plates of confectioner's equipment and six in text plates of bills of fare.
Front hinge sympathetically repaired; owner signature "Elizabeth Scott" to title-page verso; edges untrimmed; spine label soiled and chipped; boards lightly worn and soiled, corners gently bruised; faint foxing occasionally to margins; a few creased corners.
Jarrin’s name appears as 'W.A.' instead of 'G.A.' here for the first time, ‘Guglielmo’ having been anglicized to ‘William’.
Trained in Italy and France, having worked in the Emperor's kitchens, Jarrin arrived in London in 1817 and worked at Gunter's the famous Berkeley Square confectioner, before setting up shop on his own in New Bond Street.
When compared with other contemporary 'professional' texts on confectionery and ices, The Italian Confectioner is far more technical and precise with extensive instructions on the many minute details involved in high-end confectionery. Jarrin designed and created many specialised tools and processes for his particular area of interest, table ornamentation both edible and more permanent. He also patented advances in ice-making and was an early adopter of starch moulding and of the use of the saccharometer to assist with fruit preserving, nougat making etc. Notwithstanding his technical prowess and skills, it appears Jarrin was not a very successful businessman, his stores and catering businesses often teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
599 recipes are organised into 31 chapters: Sugar, Candies, Caramel Work, Chocolate, Syrups, Marmalades or Jam, Jellies, Fruit Pastes, Preserved Fruits, The Stove, Tablets and Rock Sugar, Compotes, Comfits, Fruit Preserved without Sugar, Creams, Ices, Fruits in Brandy, Clear Jellies and Pieces Montees, Confectionery paste, Lozenges and Wafers, Cool Drinks, The Oven, Distillation of Spirits, Liqueurs, Ratafias, Gum & Other Pastes, Modelling Flowers, Animals and Figures, Colours for Confectionery, Varnishing and Gilding, Mould-making, Moulding and Modelling in Wax, Decoration in Pasteboard, Gold and Silver Paper-foil, and Engraving.
Scarce in original boards in any edition. A serious artisanal production confectioner's reference in excellent contemporary condition.
§ COPAC records 6 holdings this edition; Trove records 1 holding in Australia, all editions, Monash; OCLC is unclear.
§ Simon BG 884; Oxford p.149, Bitting p.244 and Axford p.149 describe the 1827 third edition; Cagle 777 describes the 1829 fourth edition.
Item #10169
Price: $1,650.00 AUD