Easter Eggs in 1886 from Home Dissertations, 1886

Easter Eggs in 1886 from Home Dissertations, 1886:

Easter Eggs from Home Dissertations, 1886

Yes, we have the cookbook. See it here:

Home-dissertations-2-1886-225×300

Home Dissertations: An Offering to the Household, 1886, First Edition, First Printing: Antique, hard cover book with the entire title “Home Dissertations: An Offering to the Household for Economical and Practical Skill in Cookery, Orderly Domestic Management, and Nicety in the Appointments of Home with Excerpts from Favorite Authors, Compiled and Illustrated by Mrs. E. Stevens Tilton.” Cookbook was published by Hunter and Beach, Publishers, New York in 1886. Lovely embossed cover is in nearly mint antique condition, with some modest amount of shelf wear at the top and bottom of the spine cover, especially at the corners. As I hope you can see in the images, the embossing is absolutely intact. Binding is tight. All 174 pages are completely clean and clear.   Fascinating book.  Rare.  Very difficult to find.  Really shouts out “antique cookbook,” if you are looking for a truly unique gift.

Mrs. Tilton must have been an incredibly talented person. The book has chapters on the home, art at home, the hearth, flowers, wives, manners, conversation, to-day, happiness, orderly domestic management, keeping house, Emerson on the baby, Mr. Ruskin’s ideas of a model nursery, cleanliness, food and drink, enthusiasm of labor, table etiquette, table talk, dinner giving, table rules for little ones, and French names of dishes used in menus. Then, the cookbook portion of the book follows, a comprehensive cookbook occupying 106 pages of the book. AND Mrs. Tilton apparently produced the extremely detailed many metal engravings illustrating the cookbook. (See the griffon in the illustration here.)

This cookbook includes a 22-page priced catalogue of “fine groceries, wines, &c.” from the more than 20 pages of local advertising pages have etchings and text for everything from shoes to sherry, all from California, especially Los Angeles and San Francisco. Most ads are for high-end goods like fine cigars, luggage, champagnes and other fine wines, specialty meats, fine carpetings and furniture, hats, canes and umbrellas, wallpapers, silver and plated ware, sheet music, and banks. Perhaps this book was used as a gift, given by merchants to wealthy clients. This copy is embossed with gold, “Compliment {of} H. Jeune, Los Angeles, California.”