How to Mix Drinks First Edition - Jerry Thomas - Bauman Rare Books

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How to Mix Drinks

Jerry THOMAS

Item#: 125119 We're sorry, this item has been sold

How to Mix Drinks

How to Mix Drinks

How to Mix Drinks

How to Mix Drinks

How to Mix Drinks

"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, original brown cloth. Housed in a custom chemise and clamshell box.

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, in the original cloth.

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. (The price of this copy, $2.50, is barely legible in gilt on the spine.) Four leaves of advertisements at rear. Cagle & Stafford 743. Simon 1461. Owner pencil signature.

Text a bit toned, perfectly legible. Expert restoration to joints, spine ends and corners. A very good copy, scarce in the original cloth.

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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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