Gastronomie cp

1664 · ABC_50496 — Amsterdam 1664. Oblong 8vo. Hieronymus Sweerts Contemporary vellum sewn on 2 supports laced through the joints. With an engraved frontispiece and 32 engraved plates 1 folding 31 full-page. 96 pp. Rare first edition of one the finest and most extensively illustrated early works on culinary carving describing and illustrating refined techniques the order of serving and the handling of various foods including poultry hare rabbit pork veal lamb mutton venison ham lobster fish artichokes and both sweet and savoury pastries. The plates illustrate a variety of carving methods and include a large folding plate depicting forks and carving knives. The work predates Joseph Moxon’s well-known deck of cards with illustrated carving instructions by thirteen years.The frontispiece depicts a gentleman at table attended by a servant carving a fowl in the Italian manner holding it aloft on a fork and carving it in mid-air for display. As noted by the anonymous author in the preface this method was not customary in the Netherlands. Accordingly the work addresses both this practice and the more conventional technique of carving on a platter. Hieronymous Sweerts 1629-1696 was a printer bookseller and poet from Amsterdam who was trained at the printing office of his uncle Paulus Aertsz. van Ravesteyn. He established his own press in 1664 and printed a wide variety of works including Bibles poetry fables and separate prints. The present work was published anonymously but one WorldCat description of the present edition says that Sweerts signed the preface "H. Sw." suggesting he might be the author of the work or at least the preface. However in all copies we have seen including the present the preface is unsigned.The vellum is soiled and somewhat stained with a small split at the spine and at the bottom of the front board. The leaves and plates are somewhat foxed and occasionally stained. Otherwise in good condition.l Bibliotheca Gastronomica 6508 4 copies; Bitting p. 530; Ferro 81a; Horn-Arndt 114; Landwehr Ned. Kookboek 17.2 this issue & 17 1664 issue; STCN 84289344X 4 copies; Van Tol et al. Kookboeken 1991 13 & ill. 10; USTC 1801667 4 copies; Vicaire col. 870; WorldCat 993593983 1170905165 902095689 504084118 8 copies; cf. for Sweerts: Van Eeghen IV pp. 138-140. hardcover