Cuisine Classique - Emile Bernard - Bauman Rare Books

Cuisine Classique

Emile BERNARD | Urbain DUBOIS

Item#: 75826 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Cuisine Classique

LA CUISINE CLASSIQUE, 1868, SIGNED BY URBAIN DUBOIS

DUBOIS, Urbain and BERNARD, Émile. La Cuisine Classique. Études Pratiques, Raisonnées et Démonstratives de lÉcole Française. Paris: E. Dentu, 1868. Two volumes. Quarto, original mauve cloth gilt rebacked with the original spines laid down, marbled endpapers.

Third edition of this classic guide to French culinary arts and 19th-century entertaining, with engraved title page, engraved menu, and 64 lovely full-page engraved plates of cuisine and table adornments, including spectacular centerpieces, signed by Dubois in blue conté crayon on the verso of the title page.

First published in 1856, this work is considered “the finest expression of the Golden Age of the French grande cuisine” (Britannica). Urbain Dubois and Émile Bernard were arguably the best known chefs of the 19th century. Dubois ran the palace kitchen of the King and Queen of Prussia, and is “credited with introducing the custom of having servants wait table” (Feret, 42). Bernard was one of France’s most talented pastry chefs, as well as Napoleon III’s personal chef. La Cuisine Classique is regarded as the most important of the six culinary works from Dubois’ hand. Text in French. Bitting 132.

A near-fine signed copy in original cloth, with only scattered foxing.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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