SET OF 4 BOOKS ON COOKERY
• Jessie A Paterson, Pot luck: A collection of favourite recipes from ladies of the Bengal Coalfields, Disergarh, Circa 1941
xvi + 112 pages; original publisher's pictorial boards
8.75 x 5.75 in (22.5 x 14.7 cm)
The title page mentions "Total proceeds of the sale of this book will be donated to war funds".
"This book has no pretensions of being a comprehensive aid to high-class cookery, nor does it claim originality in all its receipts (sic). It is purely and simply a collection of the favourite recipes of ladies of the coalfields distriict, offered with a view to obtaining money for the War Fund. I therefore wish to thank the ladies of Burnpur, Disergarh, Jhari and Kulti Clubs, in particular the two former, for their willing assistance in this respect. .....It is not, however, expected that you should buy copies of the book purely on the grounds of its being in aid of a worthy cause, for as a practical collection of recipes you will find it indispensable, and if some of the recipes herein should be familiar to you, many also will be equally new; all, at least can be personally vouched for by their donors, and as such I offer this book of "Pot Luck" recipes to the public". (Foreword)
• E P Veerasawmy, Indian Cookery: For use in all countries, Bombay: New Book Company Ltd., 1947, first edition
220 pages; publishers' pictorial board
7.5 x 5 in (19 x 12.5 cm)
Vintage cookbook from 1940s "Indian Cookery" by E.P. Veeraswamy, published in Bombay, India, first Indian edition.
Written under a pseudonym by Anglo-Indian Edward Palmer, the founder of London's famous and oldest Indian restaurant, Veeraswamy on Regent Street. The EP in the name stood for Edward Palmer and Veeraswamy was apparently, his alter ego. Note the spelling of Veeraswamy. Edward Palmer (Veeraswamy) was the son of William Palmer’s third son, James Edward Palmer, the blind major of Secunderabad, who had married Annie Ponnuswamy. William ‘the king’ Palmer died in 1867.
Despite several later reprints through the decades, this first Indian edition remains a rare and hard to find copy!
Edward Palmer in his preamble mentions But more than all, I can remember with love and gratitude my mother - the greatest exponent of Indian cookery - inculcating in me the science and art of the Indian cuisine and explaining the dietetic value of the many spices, seeds etc., and the nutritive value of various foods. EP incidentally, belonged to the eminent 'House of Palmers' at Hyderabad, which once owned a banking institution that had collapsed decades before his birth.
Palmer tells us how he got to England - I can remember being sent to England to study medicine and, in the intervals of my study, looking down areas and watching bakers at work, staring into shops where sausages and onions were being cooked, and often wishing that I could fry fish and chips in the fish shops.
The book goes on to say that EP launched out in the production of food, both Eastern and Western. Indian cookery fascinated him, and for the next forty years, he devoted himself to it; lecturing and teaching in schools of cookery for Councils of Education in public halls for charity, in classrooms, in hotel Veeraswamy’s of London and restaurant kitchens, at Exhibitions (including Wembley), and even at Aldershot to the military cooks at the request of the late General Lord French. Some books mentioned that he was a retired ex-serviceman from the British Indian army, others mentioned that he was a doctor and some others even went on to highlight his royal connections, e.g., that he was a direct descendant of the Nizam, etc. Nevertheless, we can observe that Edward Palmer did move around in the guise of EP Veerasawmy from Madras while instructing or educating the public on Indian cooking. The name Edward Palmer would not have suited the image of an Indian chef, and Palmer did have South Asian looks.
That's' the story of an Anglo Indian with Tamil origins, who left Indian shores to make his name in England, of his efforts at establishing Indian cooking in London, of his pioneering cookery book and of the establishment of Veerasawmy’s, a hotel which is one London’s premium culinary establishments, to this day.
• Mrs Dora Limond, Anglo-Indian and Portuguese dishes: Bengali sweets and other useful items, Calcutta: L.O.H. de Silva, [circa 1910 and 1930?]
xi + 108; rebound in three-quarter leather with gilt text at the spine
7.5 x 5 in (19 x 13 cm)
Mrs Dora Limond belonged to the Anglo-Indian community in Kolkata. This book is typical old-school writing with a tremendously good collection of recipes. The book has more than 100s recipes from the typical Anglo-Indian Kitchen.
• Arthur Robert Kenney-Herbert (Wyvern), Culinary jottings: a treatise in third upon modern English, & continental principles, with thirty menus for little dinners worked out in detail, and an essay on our kitchens in India, Madras: Higginbotham and Co., 1885, fifth edition
xii + 553 pages; publisher's original cloth-covered board with gilt text at the spine
7.5 x 7 in (19.2 x 18 cm)
"Wyvern" is Arthur Robert Kenney-Herbert and is the author of "Sweet Dishes," "Furlough Reminiscences". A late Victorian era British Indian Army soldier's collected writings on Indian Cookery. The first edition was published in 1878, and the work is very scarce in all editions.
Brigadier-General Arthur Robert Kenney-Herbert was a soldier who served in the British Indian Army, and wrote on cooking. He wrote regular articles about Indian cookery for The Madras Mail, Madras Atheneum and The Daily News, using the pen-name Wyvern. These articles were collected and published to form this work, which went through seven editions.
NON-EXPORTABLE
(Set of four)
This lot is offered at NO RESERVE
This lot will be shipped in "as is" condition. For further details, please refer to the images of individual lots as reference for the condition of each book.