The Bordeaux Wine and Liquor Dealers' Guide. A Treatise on the Manufacture and Adulteration of Liquors
New York: Dick & Fitzgerald.
Hardcover. Very good. Undated printing of this interesting work, first published in 1857 by Mabie & Co. and in 1858 by Dick & Fitzgerald. pp xvii, 146, [4] publisher's ads. In original green cloth binding with blind-stamped decoration, title in gilt on upper board. Corners rubbed, some soiling to rear board, occasional light foxing at margins. Binding has a little looseness to it, but remains sound. About very good. From the Introduction: "This work is the result of many years' experience of a practical distiller, manufacturer, and chemist in Bordeaux and New York. Its design is...to introduce an entirely new system of manufacturing and adulterating liquors, by which the use of poisons and poisonous compounds are avoided; and we wish it distinctly understood that we do not in any case use in our imitations any material not found by chemical analysis to exist in the original spirit we seek to imitate." And from a contemporary publisher's advertisement: "With this book in his hand any dealer can manufacture his own liquors, at a saving of 500 to 600 per cent, with little trouble, and in such a way that he would not hesitate to drink them himself, or give them to his family. He can produce Cognac, and all other brandies, Champagne, or still finer qualities of wine, with the same facility that he can make cider." The book includes sections on brandy (foreign, American, and imitation), gin, rum, wines, ale and beer, malt liquors, cordials, cider, and whiskey, as well as an Appendix containing recipes for creating various liquors by adding ingredients to "neutral or pure spirits."
Item #22109
Price: $250.00