JOICEY, Magda & Edward BAWDEN, [Illus.] ~ Cook Book Note Book

First Edition, Westhouse, London: 1946

8vo., peach cloth decorated with bowl and egg design in red to upper cover; lettered in red along backstrip; in the original unclipped pictorial dustwrapper designed by Edward Bawden (8s. 6d. net); with title vignette and chapter head drawings in line by Bawden throughout; THE BOOK a lovely copy, slightly bruised to spine ends with some creasing along spine; upper edge a trifle darkened; light spotting/creasing throughout, some slightly heavier splash marks to p. 120-121; and marginally toned, else a very good, clean copy, with one or two pencil ‘x’ markings; the DUST WRAPPER toned, but otherwise also very good; lightly creased to folds and darked to the upper edge; a couple of small closed tears; unrestored. Provenance: Burnell bookseller sticker, and ownership sticker of F. R. Furber to the front paste-down. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First edition of this scarce post-war cookbook, with notes by Angela Carter (not the author of ‘Bloody Chamber’ fame, but instead a dietetic expert, who provides insight into the Vitamins, minerals, and other health benefits of each recipe.) A charming cookbook, which would have relied heavily on the ingredients available at the time, when rationing was still in place. The UK was the last country involved in World War II to stop rationing food, with the final item being meat in 1954. Delicacies here include brawn (“If you can get the butcher to pickle the pig’s head for ten days, do so, otherwise rub salt well in and leave for 24 hours, but this is not so good. The butcher will chop the head and remove the eyes…”), cold ox-tail jelly, liver with apple, marrow stew, queen of puddings, chestnut balls, cherry brandy, and even several recipes for Lobster. Lobster was considered a delicacy during the war, and as such was not rationed, allowing them to be consumed at unprecedented rates. The celebrated artist Edward Bawden (1903-1989) was not new to cookery illustration at the time this work was published. During the 1930s, he had collaborated with Ambrose Heath on a series of cookery books, which included titles such as Good Food, More Good Food, Good Food for the Aga, Good Drinks, and Good Food Without Meat. Bawden’s charming and often humorous illustrations here show oversized hands tucking into bowls of sugar, slicing cake, and in one instance sliding open a box of macaroni, generally offset against unlikely countryside backgrounds. Scarce in the dustwrapper.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Very Good