“BOTTLED VELVET,” “ABSINTHE” AND “RUM FLIP”: FIRST EDITION OF HOW TO MIX DRINKS, THE AMERICAN BARTENDER’S GUIDE, 1862

THOMAS, Jerry. How to Mix Drinks, Or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States… To Which Is Appended a Manual for the Manufacture of Cordials, Liquors, [and] Fancy Syrups… The Whole Containing Over 600 Valuable Recipes. By Christian Schultz. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, (1862). Octavo, period-style full brown morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers. $9000.

First edition, later state, of the first drink manual published in the United States, prepared by the bartender at the Metropolitan Hotel in New York, illustrated with numerous in-text wood-engravings, including a diagram of a still.

Jerry Thomas (to whom the famous Savoy Cocktail Book is dedicated) presents 236 recipes for social drinks "apart from water and those of the breakfast and tea-table." "It struck us that a list of all the social drinks of America would really be one of the curiosities of jovial literature; and that if it was combined with a catalogue of the mixtures common to other nations [463 additional recipes], and made practically useful by the addition of the concise description of the various processes for 'brewing' each, it would be a 'blessing to mankind.'" Before How to Mix Drinks , knowledge of cocktails and their recipes was largely a matter of oral tradition in the United States; its author is today regarded as "the father of American mixology."
First edition, later state. The publishers printed and sold approximately 8000 first edition copies, first priced at $1.50, then $2.00, then $2.50. Earlier copies were titled The Bar-Tender's Guide; other copies priced at $2.50 can be found titled How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, as here, and are presumed to have appeared later. With numerous in-text woodcut illustrations. Four leaves of advertisements at rear. Cagle & Stafford 743. Simon 1461.

Interior expertly cleaned, with a few paper repairs. Very good, and extremely scarce in any condition.