A History & Description of Modern Wines
London, Whittaker & Co, 1836. Redding, Cyrus. A History & Description of Modern Wines. (2nd Ed) Whittaker & Co: London, 1836. 8vo (215x135mm) Full Calf, gilt ruled & dentelles, 6 compartments [2],xlviii,423,[3]pp. VG/- edges rubbed; bookplate to pastedown, light foxing to prelims.
Second-hand hardcover
REDDING, Cyrus (1785-1870)
A History and Description of Modern Wines. ... with considerable additions, and a new preface developing the system of the Port Wine Trade
London : Whittaker & Co., 1836. Second Edition, first published 1833. Printed by Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, London.
Octavo (220x140mm) contemporary full smooth calf boards, simple gilt ruled, board edges gilt tooled; spine, five raised bands, six gilt ruled compartments, black morocco gilt lettered spine label, grey endpapers, all edges speckled red, [2} xlviii,343,[1],[2]pp : [A]⁸, a-b⁸, B-Dd⁸, Ee⁴. Nineteen monochrome woodblock engraved illustrations, most chapter headpiece vignettes. Boards lightly scuffed, edges lightly worn; endpapers lightly foxed, armorial book-plate "Frederick Perkins, Chipstead Place Kent" to front paste down; binders ticket "Clyde O. Newman St"¹ to front free endpaper verso; faint occasional pencil marks to the margins.
Redding included "Modern" in the title to differentiate his work from the earlier works of Barry and Henderson, eschewing the classical wines of antiquity and focusing on the wines to had before the consumer. Chapters cover the usual regions of France, Germany, Portugal and Spain, as well as Italy, Hungary and Eastern Europe, Greece, Georgia, Persia, Armenia, India, China, and South Africa. There are several paragraphs alluding to the work of James Busby and the potential of wines from New South Wales, and a chapter on the wines of the Americas.
"This is the first book in English that deals exclusively with modern wines. It was an immediate success..... As a reference for information wines of the late 18th and early 19th centuries that are still produced today, there is nothing better in the English Language"³
"... no other book written in English on the subject of wines has ever been more popular not so copiously copied from by later writers..."⁴
A lovely copy of one of the foundational works on wine, with excellent provenance².
§ Gabler G35850; Simon BV p8; Noling, p.342; cf Cagle 958, first edition, Bitting p.391, third edition, and Simon BG 1265 & 1266 other editions.
¹ James Clyde (1796-1861) of Newman St was a bookinder from the 1830s to the 1860s. BBTI, London Book Binders
² Catalogue of the Library formed by the late Frederick Perkins... Important & Valuable Books and Manuscripts relating to Shakespeare and other Elizabethan Poets and Dramatists; Rare Productions from the Presses of Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson... Beautifully Illuminated Horae... London: Sotheby's, 10 July 1889. Lot #1571. Sold for 5/- Frederick Perkins, of Chipstead Place in Kent, was the third son of John Perkins, founder of the brewing firm of Barclay, Perkins of Southwark, and Amelia, sister of Benjamin Moseley M.D. of Chelsea Hospital and of Kingston Jamaica, and widow of Timothy Paul Bevan. He succeeded his father as head of the brewery. He married, 12 November 1801, Sophia, daughter of Samuel Sanders of Denmark Hill in the County of Surrey. He served as High Sheriff of Kent in 1843. He started collecting books about 1820 and left his library to his second son George who died in 1879. A portion, chiefly musical, was sold by auction in London by Puttick and Simpson 17 July 1861, and a second sale, rich in Shakespeare quartos and a first folio of 1623 took place at the rooms of Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge on 10 July 1889.
³ Gabler p.304
⁴ Simon BV p.8
Item #4502
Price: $1,200.00 AUD