12mo. [12], 252 pp., engraved title page. Fine 19th century red Morocco by Georges Trautz ("Trautz-Bauzonnet"), kept in a protective red paper slipcase, the whole kept in a custom-made beige cloth box, lined with red cloth, hinges weakened, front board starting. Light foxing throughout, otherwise in very good condition.

This has become one of the most desirable cookery books, the reason being that instead of being written for full-time chefs, the present work was meant for a bourgeois audience; the author states in the preface that because of this publication there will henceforth be no place where patisserie delicacies will not be available for consumption. It includes recipes for cakes, pies, biscuits, and other pastries, and even contains more than 60 ways of preparing eggs.

The work is attributed to the French chef François-Pierre de la Varenne (1618-1678), great innovator of French cuisine in the 17th century. De la Varenne is mostly known for his work Le cuisinier françois (1651), in which he introduces many - now common and indispensable - terms and pays special attention to the cooking of vegetables. He wrote two more works that would influence French cuisine: the famous work on pastries, and a lesser-known work on jams, jellies, preserves, and syrups. De la Varennes cookery books were incredibly successful and remained in print for 2 centuries.

Provenance: from the collection of the American lawyer, engineer, hotel operater and rare book collector Louis H. Silver (1902-1963) with his brown Morocco bookplate; later with American physician and collector of culinary books Marcus Crahan (1900-1978), with his book plate on the recto of the second marbled flyleaf, whose collection encompassed well over a thousand books on gastronomy, his collection sold at auction in 1984; unidentified gold-tooled blue morocco armorial plate mounted on the recto of the second marbled flyleaf (a crowned rococo-style cartouche containing three small flowers), and two manuscript inscriptions on the recto of the first blank flyleaf, respectively in blue ink and pencil ("Exemplaire de MM. Sensier, Binon, (V. le Manuel), Millot et duMarquis de Coislin." and "de M. de Montesson, et de M. Cotier[?].").

Brunet IV, 426; Crahan 73; Horn-Arndt, Kochbuchsammlung 155; Oberlé, Les fastes de Bacchus et de Comus 81; Schraemli, Von Lucullus zu Escoffier, pp. 120-4; Vicaire 660-2; Willems 1187 (listing only five copies).