[Rarebooks] FS: 2 important 17th c. household guides w/manuscript additions

[Kenneth Karmiole]

Plat, Hugh. THE JEWEL HOUSE OF ART AND NATURE: Containing Divers Rare and Profitable Inventions... London: Elizabeth Alsop. 1653. 4to. (8),232pp. Index. Title within a type border. With numerous text woodcuts. BOUND WITH: Muffett (or, Moffett), Thomas. HEALTHS IMPROVEMENT... THE NATURE, Method, and Manner of Preparing All Sorts of Food Used in This Nation. Corrected and Enlarged by Christopher Bennet. London: Tho. Newcomb for Samuel Thomson. 1655. (8),296pp. With the Imprimatur leaf. Both works bound together in cont. blind tooled paneled calf, front hinge cracked but cords holding. On 2 final blank leaves are 3 full pages of manuscript remedies (how to cure a sore throat, a remedy for the stones, etc) in a contemporary hand. Title of Moffett somewhat soiled. Some pencil marginal notations to both.       $4,500.00 (trade discount allowed)
Two very interesting practical texts, the first relating to industry, agriculture and various useful recipes, and the second to diet and nutrition, including food preparation. Plat’s work has 149 essays on subjects such as keeping fruit fresh, how to brew good beer, how to steal bees, kill rats, make cheese, etc., etc. Moffett has chapters on all varieties of food; meats, fowl, eggs, milk, sea-fish, fresh water fish, spices, salt & sugar, orchard fruits, etc., etc.  
I. Wing P2391. Revised second edition (first is 1594) with new text by Arnold de Boate, who edited this edition.  One of the first books printed by Elizabeth Alsop (active 1653-1656).
II. Wing M2382. First edition. NLM #8011. One Hundred Sixteen Uncommon Books on Food and Drink, #83. Cagle. A Matter of Taste, #879.

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