A New System of Domestic Cookery
London, John Murray, 1818. A Lady. A New System of Domestic Cookery. (New Edition) John Murray: London, 1818. 8vo (170x100mm) brown cloth bds, lii,352pp. fp, 9 plates. Rebound, lacks half-title; edges worn, faint foxing; lightly soiled
Second-hand hardcover
[RUNDELL, Maria Eliza née Ketelby Rundell (1745-1828)]
A New System of Domestic Cookery, formed upon principles of economy and adapted to the use of private families by a Lady. A new edition, corrected.
London : John Murray, Albermarle St: sold also by Longman, Baldwin, Richardson, Lackington, Underwood, London; Wilson, York; Mozley, Derby: Blackwood, Manners and Miller, and Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh; Cumming , and Keene, Dublin; and by every bookseller and newsman in town and country, 1818. New (tenth ? ) edition, first published circa 1808. Printed by S Hamilton, Weybridge, Surrey.
Duodecimo (170x100mm) sturdy brown cloth boards, plain gilt lettered spine, new endpapers lii,352pp : [a]¹², b¹², c², B-P¹², Q⁸(-Q8). Engraved frontispiece 'Domestic Economy' of a pantry with a dresser, game and meat on a table and fish in pans on the floor with a cook in the background; nine out-of-text engraved plates illustrating cuts of meat, carving and trussing. Recased mid-twentieth century, boards edges faintly worn; frontispiece heavily chipped, mounted to new fly-leaf; faint foxing throughout, lightly soiled, small signs of kitchen use, a few folded corners; leaves a-a3 top fore-edge corner chipped, some loss affecting one letter; top fore-edge corner of leaves a8-b4 chewed some loss not affecting the text; lacks p.354, the final page of the publisher's catalogue.
First published anonymously (as was the fashion) in 1805, when Rundell was 62, A New System was a popular success and was promptly reprinted a number of times until the 1860s. Noted for its practical and sensible outlook, A New System addressed the need for the emerging middle classes in the late Georgian period for a manual for household management. This edition was published during the protracted dispute between the author and publisher but before legal proceedings were commenced over the proceeds of sale. which Rundell had originally disavowed in the preface). The dispute was ultimately resolved by John Murray buying the copyright for future editions; later editions included contributions from other authors.
§ OCLC records 14 copies this edition.
§ This edition not recorded in the usual bibliographies; cf Cagle & Stafford 971-977, Axford p.297, Oxford p.135, Bitting p.410; Simon BG 1319-1332; Vicaire 812; all alternate editions.
Item #10639
Price: $175.00 AUD