The New Family Receipt-Book

Stock No. 17847

Authors: David, HUGHSON (c1760-1813?)

The New Family Receipt-Book: Or Universal Repository Of Domestic Economy, Including A Fund Of Useful Knowledge And Experience In All The Various Branches Of Cookery, Medicine, Confectionery, Pastry, Brewing, Distilling, Pickling, Preserving, Perfumery, Dyeing, Gilding, Painting, Varnishing, Agriculture, Farriery, Gardening, Hunting, Fishing, Fowling, &C, &C. &C. From The Scarce, Curious, And Valuable Select Receipts And Choice Memorandums, With Specifications Or Approved Patent Medicines, Extracted From The Records Of The Patent Office; All The Most Serviceable Preparations For Domestic Purposes, And Numerous Successful Improvements In The Ornamental And Useful Arts, Manufactures, Collected From Private Sources Of Information, As Well As From Foreign Books And Journals In All The Languages Of Europe: The Whole Forming An Extensive Library Of Valuable Domestic Knowledge And General Economy...

London: Printed for W. Pritchard and J. Bysh, 1817

First (and only) edition. Demy quarto (10.75 x 8.5 ins); pp [5], 6-384, [blank]. Engraved frontispiece entitled "Truth pointing in the light of Philosophy" and depicting a women pointing at a shaft of light whilst sitting in a room surrounded by numerous vessels, possibly a laboratory of some kind. Frontis slightly toned, as is the titlepage which also has a short, closed tear to the bottom edge. Other leaves well browned, final ten leaves - mainly the index - somewhat crumpled and foxed, final two leaves and endpaper chipped at outer corner, though no loss to text. Contemporary calf spine over marbled boards, spine re-laid with new front end paper inserted. Boards well rubbed, corners slightly worn and rounded. A truly extraordinary and eccentric work covering a plethora of subjects considered useful in the home, from recipes to medicinal concoctions, beer making, cement mixing, house painting, dyeing, making of water-bord lime, to mention a few. Under recipes one learns how to create such dishes as Neat's Foot Jelly, French Peasant's Pot, Parmasan Cheese, Hodge-Podged Hare, whilst remedies stretch to snake bites, Numbed or Trembling Hands, tea for the Gout, The Duchess of Rutland's Stomach Plaister for a Cough, Infallible Cures for the Cramp, and on it goes. Authorities suggest Hughson may have been a pseudonym for William Pugh, the compiler of a six volume work on the topography and history of London published between 1805 and 1809.