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[ARCHIVE] International Pastry Chef's Career Journals

Egoroff, Michel. 16 Volumes. This archive gives an inside look not only into the history of pastry throughout a large part of the 20th century, but also a glimpse into the inner workings of a professional kitchen and how it operated during this time. 

 Michel Egoroff was a working chef whose long career is detailed in this comprehensive collection of handwritten journals. Egoroff worked in Belgrade, Ljubljana, Opatija, Fiume, Florence, Paris, Nice, Monte-Carlo, London, New York, Houston, Dallas, and Los Angeles. This ambitious chef specialized in patisserie and worked at upscale hotels around the world. Egoroff's anthology of notebooks details the breadth of his career, which spanned over 50 years with each journal connecting seamlessly from one language to the next. He was fluent (or near fluent) in French, English, Russian and German. Egoroff took meticulous notes, demonstrating throughout his career the techniques he most likely wanted to pass on to the next generation - our theory, after spending a great deal of time with these journals, is, Egoroff was embarking on making these records into a book. 

 Vol. I: 144 pages. 20 x 16 cm. "Paris - Monte Carlo - Nice - Belgrad - Ljubljana 1925-1941 [Peyennibe] [Kohgumepckui] [Muscausa Eropoba]" Collection of handwritten recipes in Russian, many accompanied by sketches. Brown waxed notebook, cover detached.

 Vol. II: 214 pages. 22 x 16.5 cm. "Egoroff Michel - Patisserie confiserie cuisine - New York City 1953"

Written in French, German, and English with a comprehensive list of different types of pastry and its components, divided under separate headings - possibly was a plan for an eventual cookbook or to be used as a cooking course. Black and white marbled composition book. Edges rubbed.

 Vol. III: 288 pages. 22 x 17 cm. "1925-1950 Egoroff Michel - Patjsserse Conjserje [Belgrad, Ljublijana, Fiume, Abbazia, Firenze, Paris, Nice, Monte-Carlo, Londres] [New York 1952, Dec. 8 - Houston 1952-1959, Los Angeles July 20, 1959]

Nearly 300 pages of handwritten recipes - written in Russian, French, and English. Letter dated 1953 laid in, from a friend congratulating Michel on his new job. Curano notebook, significant wear to binding - hinges reinforced at head and tail with tape.

 Vol. IV: Three Composition notebooks (1) 72 pages. 22 x 18 cm. "Petits Fours" - includes over 90 recipes written in English and French. Note cards laid in. Black and white marbled composition book, heavily rubbed.

(2) 40 pages. 22 x 18 cm. "Michel Egoroff 1925 - 1955, Patissier - confiseur/Les Petit fours/La liste" Written in English and French. Black and white marbled composition book, heavily rubbed. (3) 39 pages. 22 x 16 cm. Recipes written in English, French, and Russian. Recipes with extensive notations and writings in margins demonstrating how a chef would check off or edit certain recipes to suit their needs. 

 Vol. V: 122 pages. 26 x 20 cm. "May 1955 - Michel Egoroff - 227 West Alabama, Houston, Texas - The Shamrock". Written in English, includes recipes, daily schedules, and diagrams for pastries. Egoroff was employed as the pastry chef for the Shamrock Hotel, which upon its construction in 1949, was the largest hotel in the United States. Brown waxed covered cardboard. Cover detached. 

 Vol. VI: 300 pages. 31 x 20 cm. "No. 1 Book - The Modern Pastry Chef's Guide to Professional Baking" (Title cut and adhered to front of journal from jacket of cookbook of the same name by Dominique D' Ermo, published in 1962). Recipes written in English, French, and German. Egoroff is now living in Sherman Oaks, California and is the pastry chef for the Biltmore Hotel. This journal is overflowing with recipes along with news clippings pertaining to the chef, photographs, and hand drawn images. Cloth covered boards, in very good condition.

 Vol. VII: 300 pages. 31 x 10 cm. "No. 2 Book ". This journal is from Egoroff's time working in Los Angeles - at the Biltmore Hotel and possibly teaching at Pavilion and Curtain Call at the Music Center, two restaurants owned by the famed American restauranteur, Fred Harvey, located in the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles. Recipes written in English and French. Mementos of his time in Los Angeles include memos, photographs, menus, news clippings, and lists and notes pertaining to the pastry. Press clippings also show the famous clientele he catered to during his time at the Music Center restaurant. Cloth covered boards, in very good condition.

 Vol. VIII: "Chef Egoroff - Biltmore, Start Working March 27, 1961, Finished Working November 29, 1969" 152 pages. 31 x 20 cm. Recipes, lists, telephone numbers of suppliers, drawing of pastry, and many pages of notes laid in. Index of recipes in rear with notes in English and Russian. Cloth covered boards, heavily rubbed and reinforced with tape. 

 Vol. VIII: "The Modern Pastry Chef's Professional Pastry Chef's Guide. Petite Anthologie et Le Répertoire de La Pâtisserie et des entremets d'Hôtels et de /restaurants. Les Recettes - The Recipe's 1925-1970. (handwritten)" With address sticker for Michel Egoroff from outside Ghent, Belgium. 300 pages. 30 x 21.5 cm. 5 pages of handwritten notes in French and English. This seems to be an attempt at creating a cookbook out of all of his journals. 

 Vol. VIII - XIII: These notebooks include glued newspaper/book clippings, all in French - recipes and food writing. Many of these clippings are from Gazette du Ménage and Les Propos de Tante Rosalie - published in Brussels. These may have been the property of Egoroff's wife, Elyce, as many of the recipes and instructions are for domestic economy. 

 From our research we conclude that Michel Egoroff was born in Moscow, Russia in 1905, emigrated to the United States in 1952 and became an naturalized citizen (along with his wife) in 1958. 

$5,275.00

 

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The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book

Toklas, Alice BIllustrations by Sir Francis Rose. London: Michael Joseph, 1954. First U.K. Edition, First Printing. 288 pages. 23.5 x 16 cm. Born is San Francisco in 1877, Toklas made her way to France after the 1906 Earthquake. Toklas arrived in Paris in 1907 and immediately met Gertrude Stein - they would spend the rest of Stein's life living and working together. In this Cookbook/Memoir, Toklas writes about French food with American sensibilities in mind - for instance, as an American, one substitutes ingredients when they are not on hand. Unlike the American edition, this one contains the Haschich Fudge recipe. Boards and interior clean. Dust wrapper stained with chips and closed tears. Cream cloth covered boards. Very good, in good dust wrapper. Hardcover.

$1,250.00

 

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Peanuts Cook Book

Schulz, Charles & June Dutton.  San Francisco: Determined Productions, Inc., 1969. 90 pages. 47 recipes for kids from 6 to 60 featuring the Peanuts comic strip. Clean, crisp copy. Dust wrapper very lightly rubbed. Green and pink illustrated boards. Very good, in very good dust wrapper. Hardcover.

$45.00

 

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[WINE] Le Vin de BORDEAUX

Montorgueil, Georges (Text) & Pierre Lissac (Illustrations).Livre DEUXIÈME. Paris, 1925. 83 pages. 20 x 14.5 cm. Second book in a series published by the great wine house of Nicolas. This edition explores the Bordeaux region - illustrated in color throughout by Pierre Lissac. Color illustrated fold-out map of region and a large folding chart of quantities produced in this areas dating 1876 through 1923. Text in French. Light foxing to interior. Mauve faux suede marled wraps. Very good. Wraps.

$50.00

 

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[COTTON] [LEDGER] Two Bound Ledgers

Troy Cotton & Woolen Manufactory.  Fall River, Massachusetts: Troy Cotton & Woolen Manufactory, 1885-87 1893-97. 41 x 30 cm. Two beautifully bound ledger books of the Troy Cotton & Woolen Manufactory located in Fall River, Massachusetts, known as "Troy" between 1804 and 1834. Fall River's geography and location, with ready access to water power and port facilities, helped propel the city, by the mid-1800s, into one of the centers of American textile manufacturing that became the backbone of the American economy in the 19th century. The detailed handwritten accounts in these ledgers provide a unique window into the triangular structure of the textile industry -- i.e. the sourcing of raw cotton from the plantation South by textile mills in the North, the transformation of the imported material into textiles in the North, and the eventual sale of the resulting cloth to manufacturers of finished goods. Before the Civil War, cotton, sugar and tobacco, were the basis for a thriving American economy built tragically on the backs of slave labor.  America was able to regain its position as the world's leading producer of cotton after the Civil War. By 1870, sharecroppers, small farmers, and plantation owners in the American South produced more cotton than slave laborers had in 1860, a trend that lasted through the early 1900's. 

 Ledger I, comprising 360 pages and commencing on June 29, 1885, features a daily tally of all goods bought and sold by the Troy Cotton & Woolen Manufactory. Supplies include: spinners, brooms, lumber, grain, cards, bagging, labor, and new machinery. Cotton is bought from scores of suppliers or "Factors" located in New Orleans, Mobile AL, Dawson GA, Corsican TX, Selma GA, Forsyth GA, Charlotte NC, Austin TX, Louisville KY, Hillsboro TX, etc. 

 Ledger II, comprising 552 pages and commencing on October 31, 1892, provides a full accounting of the Troy Cotton & Woolen Manufactory operation:

Balance sheets include: Stock balances, Construction costs, Real Estate holdings, Cash on hand, Cotton expenditure, Cloth, Cotton in process, Profit & Loss, Waste, Dividend, Fuel, Banding, Starch, Supplies, Rents, Repairs, Interest, Gas, Oil, Expenses, Brokerage, and Labor. Customers buying the finished product came from Boston, Chicago, Staten Island, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Providence, Brooklyn, Hartford, etc.

 Laid in ephemera: 1891 postcard concerning Dividends, 30 Dividend Receipts 1874, (3) $500 Stock Shares - 1924,1925, 1935, 1924 Receipt for 27 Stock Shares, and 20 page pamphlet 1909 Mortgage Deed of Trust. 

 Full leather, tooled and heavily decorated in gilt. Near fine. Hardcover.

$3,750.00

 

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A Friend In Need - English-Tamil Cookery Book

The Ladies' Committee - F.I.N.S. Women's Workshop. Madras, 1950. Third Edition. 332 pages. 21.5 x 14 cm. First published in 1933 by the Friends In Need Society (assisting the aged, infirm, and destitute European and Anglo-Indian Christians), this Anglo-Indian cookbook was written for British women in India who wanted to recreate their home environs while living in the colony. Written in two languages - English and Urdu, side by side. Last 12 pages filled with local ads. Some pencil annotations, covers rubbed. Color illustrated boards. Very good. Hardcover.

$75.00

 

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[SCRAPBOOK] Young Woman's Photo & Scrapbook - Sterling College

Eastwood, Winifred. Future Professor. Sterling, Kansas: The Reilly & Lee Co., 1928. 60 pages. 20.5 x 15 cm. 1920's - 1930's. Well organized, early twentieth-century young woman's scrapbook revealing a spirited social life overflowing with handmade cards/invitations, letters, ribbons, menus, and over 150 neatly labeled photos. The scrapbook, entitled, It's All Over Now! - is illustrated throughout with flapper style/John Held figurines. Winifred Eastwood was born in Mission Creek, Pawnee County, Nebraska in 1908, graduating from Sterling College in 1928 (Graduation booklet included). The overall sentiment taken from this highly personal keepsake is that Ms. Eastwood, as a woman, enjoyed an inclusive, coed college experience. Research shows Ms. Eastwood, in 1969, was the Head of the Extension Division of Home Economics, A Cooperative Extension - at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, where she helped organize community programs seeking to confront the problem of racism. She is listed as the Assistant Director for Home Economics in 1973 and published: 60 Years of Cooperative Extension Service in Massachusetts. She died in 1996 and is buried in Amherst, MA. Black boards, color illustrated paper title. Good. Hardcover.

$375.00

 

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[LEDGER] [MANUSCRIPT] Jacob Suydam His Book 1762

Suydam, Jacob. [LEDGER] [MANUSCRIPT] Jacob Suydam His Book 1762 10 pages laid in - family history. Township of Flushing Queens, 1762 - 1819. Unpaginated [304 pp]. 32.5 x 21 cm. Autograph manuscript, ink and pencil on paper. Accounts penned on both rectos & versos. This manuscript account book records the iron trade and farm business of Jacob Suydam (c. 1730 - 1809) in the Township of Flushing Queens. Featuring the names we now consider familiar throughout the New York City boroughs - this ledger is teeming with the linked history of early life in the New York, Long Island, Brooklyn, and the Flushing Queens community. The names of Hicks, Willet, Smith, Ries, Van Wick, Cornell, and Willis all find there places in this document. 

 Jacob Suydam's footprint in the new world, or as his ancestors referred to the New York area as New Netherlands, begins with his great grandfather, Hendrick Jijcken (Rycke,) who arrived in New Netherlands in or around 1663 - taking the Oath of Allegiance in September 1687, as a resident of Flatbush, Long Island. He was a blacksmith by trade, eventually settling in the Midwout section of Queens. Midwout (middle woods) was named by these Dutch settlers as an area of dense woodlands. Hendrick's son (Jacob Suydam's father) Jacob Rycke (1666-1737) adopted the name Suydam sometime in the early 1700's. 

 The ledger begins on March, 1762 - Jacob Suydam diligently records every patron's name and every task that was performed, along with the cost and payment or credit. Many of his neighbors were listed multiple times as this was a tight knit community and much of the trade was done locally. For instance, Benjamin Arison is listed nine times from 1766 through 1775. With over sixty different family names registered here, the ledger describes tasks such as: hoop a churn, plate a plow, shoe a horse, mend tongs, mend a grindstone, iron and nails for wagon, teeth for oyster tongs, mend for bettle ring, spring for lock, as well as credit earned for days work, foodstuffs sold, and cash lent out. 

 Three quarters the way through the ledger, dating July, 1777, the recording of Iron Trade work concludes and picks up on the next page, in a different hand, documenting the Will and Inventory of Jacob Suydams. Historical records are concurrent with the dates recorded here: "July 8, 1809 Cash paid for proving the will and Inventory". The next four pages chronicle the money paid out of the Estate of Jacob Suydam, with the last date in ink written May 10 1819. 

 We know from the 1790 census that Suydam and many of his neighbors were slave owners - Suydam owning 5 slaves that year. In his last Will (found online), Suydam sets free his slave Sarah, who is "somewhat advanced in years" and asks that she be supported by the Will if she is unable to support herself with labor. In the ledger, directly beneath the recording of cash paid out for Jacob's Will are 2 records: 1810 February 26 - "Cash paid for digging Jacob Suydam's grave" followed by Cash paid for digging old Sarah's grave" and March 2 "Cash paid for old Sarah's Coffin." Also found in historical records online - Suydam freed his "Negro Boy William", first putting him out "to service" with "such a master as will give him learning sufficient to read and write" until his age of Twenty Three and then he would "be free and at his liberty and own disposal." We believe Jacob was married but the wife had died earlier, as it states in his Will, his wife's property had already been apportioned to her relatives. Jacob's Will assigns his property to his siblings and their descendants - there seems to have been no living children. 

 The last quarter of the account is written in pencil and seems to be an accounting of a farm with similar customer/family names recorded earlier on in the ledger, but with foodstuffs noted. 10 handwritten pages laid in - family history linking Jacob Suydam to Benjamin Arison as his Uncle. One of the notes recalls "Uncle Ben Arison (son) having a vegetable market on Main St. Flushing for several years and I remember as a child when visiting Grandmother Fowler in Flushing around 1867-70 going to see him and eating the fruit." Note is attributed to Mary Elizabeth Roe, daughter of Mary Arison (Fowler) Roe and Newbury Roe. The letters laid in discuss the family history of many of the clients recorded in the ledger with principal family name of Roe.

 Ledger is noticeably worn with cracking to the hinges, although still holding well. Pages toned with some torn and a few ripped out at the rear. 

Brown calf. Good. Hardcover. 

$5725.00 

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Hungers Prevention: Or, The Whole Art of Fowling by Water and Land

Markham, Gervase. Containing all the Secrets belonging to that Art, and brought into a true Forme or Method, by which the most Ignorant may know how to take any king of Fowle, either by Land or Water. Also, exceeding neccessary and profitable for all such as travell by Sea, and come into uninhabited places: Especially, all those that have any thing to doe with New Plantations. London: Francis Grove for Martha Harrison, 1655. Second Edition. [xvi] including the woodcut frontispiece 285 [1] pages. 14 x 9 cm. Profusely illustrated with charming woodcuts, this rare and pragmatic seventeenth century English treatise deals with every aspect of fowling and Falconry while including, in the title, a nod to the Americas and the need for a work devoted to self-sufficiency - (the first dedication mentions 'the blessed Plantation of Virginia'). Markham explores the various methods of bird-catching, including descriptions and illustrations of the use of nets, springs, decoys, guns, and hounds; with the training and grooming of hounds and 'water doggs'. Baiting with 'Beafe, Mutton, Veale, or any other kinde of Fleshe', along with Nux Vomica (Homeopathic preparation) is used in taking Land-Fowl. Bird calling is described while some of the fowl mentioned are Pheasants, Ravens, Partridges, Crows, Sparrows, Gray-Plover, Robins, Starlings, and Linnets. Chapter twelve is entirely devoted to Hawking. An unsophisticated contemporary binding that has stood the test of time as this would have been used in the field and most commonly found heavily restored or in modern bindings. Later spine label lettered 'Fowling', contemporary annotation, possible shelf mark, to title-page, slightly rubbed with some worm damage and rubbing to boards. Both pastedowns sprung but still present, with with early ownership inscription of 'J. Cooke Gaiborough' to the verso of the upper board. Contemporary sheep. Very good. Hardcover.

$6,250.00

 

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[WWI] [RED CROSS] [NURSING] 1914 - 1919 Deptford Red Cross

Warcup, Kate Parry. Cotton Commemorative Embroidered Tablecloth. Deptford, England, 1920. 810 x 895 mm. A charming, hand crafted, W.W.I. souvenir made by Kate Parry Warcup (1867-1937). With over 200 signatures honoring her fellow VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment 1909-1918) members from the South East London community of Deptford, who, we presume, either volunteered for, or were associated with the Red Cross Between 1914-1919. The tablecloth has the embroidered signature - "A Wartime Souvenir, from Kate D. Warcup, June, 1920". A logical theory of how this memento was made - most likely, signatures were gathered and first made in pencil with Kate later hand stitching each name with precision. Notably, the central signatures are of the Mayor and Mayoress of Deptford at the time, 'W.A. Wayland', and 'Chas Wm Bowerman M.P.P.C.' Charles William Bowerman (1851-1947) was a life-long trade unionist and politician; the Labour MP for Deptford from 1906 to 1931. A remarkable, one of a kind item, in excellent condition. Some light spotting to a few areas, otherwise beautifully preserved. Cotton embroidered table cloth, hand stitched. Near fine. Cloth.

$1,425.00

 

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The Art of Cookery, made Plain and Easy

A LADY (GLASSE, Hannah). Which far exceeds any Thing of the Kind yet published. London: A. Millar, J. & R. Tonson, W. Strahan, P. Davey and B. Law, 1760. Seventh Edition. 384 pages - (24 ind.) First published in 1747, the book was reprinted within its first year of publication - 20 editions in the 18th century followed. It was not uncommon for a female scribe to keep her identity hidden, but by using the title "A LADY", erroneous claims of authorship flourished. Unfortunately for Glasse, her financial situation was never secure and she filed for bankruptcy and even spent some time in debtors prison. [OXFORD 77], [BITING 189]. Expertly rebacked, portions of the original backstrip preserved. Interior crisp. Orig. calf, rebacked. Very good. Hardcover.

$950.00

 

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