The Table: a monthly publication
New York, M Doolady & National Literary Exchange, 1873. Gray, Barry (ed). The Table: a monthly publication devoted to the refinements of the table. M Doolady & Brentano: New York, 1873. 8vo (230x150mm) sewn printed wrappers. A complete run January to August 1873.
Second-hand softcover
GRAY, Barry [pen-name of Robert Barry Coffin (1826 - 1886)], editor.
The Table: a monthly publication devoted to the refinements of the table. Vol 1: Issues 1 - 8 (a complete run)
New York : M Doolady (Issues 1 - 4)/National Literary Exchange (Issues 3 - 8), January to August 1873¹. First and only edition. A complete run. All issues printed by Kelly & Rorty, Printers 98 Nassau Street. Issue 5 sold by Brentano, Union Square. Issues 6 - 8 sold by Brentano, Union Square and The American News Company.
Octavo (230x145mm) printed lilac paper wrappers, letterpress, sewn, January. [1] - 20; February [21] - 44; March [45] - 64; April [65] - 88; May [89] - 110,[2]; June [111] - 131,[3]; July [133] - 161,[3]; August [165] - 193,[3]pp. Advertisements for hotels, restaurants, wine merchants, breweries, and notably Krug Champagne. All issues, wrapper edges faded; issues 1 - 3 wrappers soiled, chipped some loss to the margins; issue 3 spine scorched, loose in wrappers; issue 4, small closed tear, wrappers soiled; issues 5 - 8 wrapper edges lightly soiled and chipped. Bookplate "Samling Vilgon Gastronomica" to the inside of the front wrapper of issue 1.²
The subscription was initially $1 for the year, or 10ȼ an issue, which was doubled in Issue 5. Each issue contained between fifteen and twenty short articles. In Issue 1 Gray laid out the journal's purpose as being: "...devoted exclusively to subjects connected with the pleasures of the table, the science of cooking and the art of good living. It will treat of all matters pertaining to eating and drinking, the preapring and cooking of food - fish flesh, fowl and vegetable - and the selection of teas, coffees, wines and liquors. Recurring features included "Breakfast Table Chat", "Oriental Gastronomy", "Host and Guest", "Tea Table Gossip", "Dinner Table Talk" "Seasonal Recipes" and "Bill of Fare".
Witty, droll, gossipy, and amusing, The Table casually collated reminescences of meals past, cocktails, good wine, recommended recipes and reviews (books, meals and establishments), interspersed with the things any good gastronome should know.
Coffin was an American humorist, writer and journalist based in New York. He was the editor of the Home Journal of New York in 1858, and was also at one time an art critic for the Evening Post. He wrote for numerous periodicals under the pen-name “Barry Gray”. His many books include ‘My Married Life at Hillside’, 'Out of Town', ‘Cakes and Ale at Woodbine’ and ‘The Home of Cooper’ .
§ OCLC records only one complete holding at U Minnesota. The AAS holds a complete set; one digital holding at several US institutions via the AAS Historical Periodicals archive series.; three apparently incomplete holdings of issue 1 ; one digital holding of issue 1; the Met holds issue 2. There are two complete holdings at the Library of Congress.
§ Not in Mott;
¹ Michal Doolady was a New York publisher, mostly of juvenile material, between 1858 and 1873. According to Issue 5 of The Table, Doolady retired in May 1873, accounting for the change in publisher and sales distribution.
² Olov Vilgon (1894-1979) was a Swedish collector of gastronomy who built a quite large collection. In 1976 he privately published "Bibliografi över Svensk Gastronomisk Litteratur 1557-1950"
³ Longone, Jan. "Berney's Mystery of Living and other nineteenth-century cooking magazines. Gastronomica Vol 2: No 2 Spring 2002 pps 97 - 102.
Item #11440
Price: $2,250.00 AUD