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1862 Book: The Bar-Tender’s Guide or How to Mix Drinks by Jerry Thomas - $2,250
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Dick & Fitzgerald, Publishers, No.18 Ann Street, New York
First edition, later printing
244 pages
[8] advert. pp.
Engraved illustrations in the text
Octavo
Original burgundy cloth with spine title and ornaments stamped in gilt, blind-stamped ornaments to covers
7.5 inches x 5.25 inches
Binding is strong with all pages firmly attached
The pages are generally clean
The prior owners have signed the first and last end papers and the FFEP
Overall, the pages are in great shape, the binding is solid
Black ink still very strong color
Inner hinges are in tact and firm
Moderate darkening to endpapers
Covers show some soiling
Ribbing to spine ends
Corners lightly bumped
Faint stain to top edge
Some staining, but overall in very good condition for its age
1/17/1889 inscription on back free endpaper
Pages 49 to 64 have a puncture mark at the bottom of the page where the book was being held open
Page 143/144 has bent corner from marking page
Vintage tin photo included in pages
Overall still quite presentable and near very good
"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, Together with the Most Popular British, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish Recipes, Embracing Punches, Juleps, Cobblers, etc., etc., etc., in Endless Variety. To Which is Appended a Manual for the Manufacture of Cordials, Liquors, Fancy Syrups, &c., &c., . Illustrated with Descriptive Engravings. The Whole Containing over 600 Valuable Recipes. By Christian Schultz"
(pages 1-87 contain the Jerry Thomas drinks manual; the Schulz text is on pages 89-244, beginning with a separate title page. The first edition of Professor Thomas' "Bon Vivant's Companion" was published in 1862 and is considered the first American cocktail book. The present copy has no printing date on title page, but was likely printed some months after the first printing. This copy has "Price $2.50" embossed in gilt below the spine title ornament. The first and earliest printings were priced $1.50.
Jerry Thomas is known to have authored two books: How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivant's Companion (originally published in 1862)
The first drinks book in the English language to contain recipes for cocktails, The Bar-Tender’s Guide or How to Mix Drinks by Jerry “The Professor” Thomas (later retitled How to Mix Drinks or the Bon-Vivan’ts Companion) presented the broad variety of mixed drinks that had gained rapid popularity in the United States by the early 1860s.
Ten cocktails appear in this landmark work: Brandy, Champagne, Fancy Brandy, Fancy Gin, Gin, Japanese, Jersey, Soda, The, and Whiskey. Thomas’s travels to England in 1859 where he appeared as a guest barman at the Bowling Alley Bar in London’s Cremorne Pleasure Gardens yielded a few adaptations of British drinks such as Gin Punch by [Alexis Benoit] Soyer.
Punch Jelly, another Soyer-influenced concoction comes with the caution that: “the strength of the punch is so artfully concealed by its admixture with the gelatine, that many persons, particularly of the softer sex have been tempted to partake so plentifully of it as to render them somewhat unfit for waltzing or qua drilling after supper.”
Bottled cocktails and punch to speed up service are also introduced in this amazing mixed drink bible
Thomas’s publisher printed an 1876 edition during the barman’s lifetime and two years after his death, published a posthumous edition in 1887 that included numerous popular drinks of the late 1880s
Unique gift for your favorite bartender or bar owner
You won't find one of these books in the average bookshelf