The Book of Ices

Marshall, A B. The Book of Ices: including cream & water ices... (10th Ed) Marshall's School of Cookery: London, [ca.1894]. 8vo (180x125mm) blue cloth, gilt lettered bds, 4 colour plates, vii,[1],71,[1]pp. VG-/- bds lightly soiled & worn; hinges softening

MARSHALL, A B [Mrs Agnes Bertha (ca.1855 - 1905)]

The Book of Ices: including cream and water ices, sorbets, mousses, iced soufflés, and various iced dishes, with names in French and English and various coloured designs for ices.

London : Marshall's School of Cookery and Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co, circa 1894. Tenth thousand ("Tenth Edition" stated on boards). Printed by William Clowes & Sons Limited, London & Beecles.

Octavo (180x120mm) blue blind-ruled cloth, gilt lettered boards vii (including frontispiece),[1 blank],71,[1 advertisement]pp : A⁴, B-E⁸, F⁴. Four chromolithographic colour plates including frontispiece, by McQuorcodale & Co with tissue guards; advertisements to yellow endpapers; numerous engraved black and white illustrations throughout.  Head and foot of spine and corners lightly worn, very faint age-toning in several spots else bright & crisp; the colour plates are fine bright and with complete neat, crisp guards; hinges softening but holding, joints fine; address in ink to rear of frontispiece;

Although Mrs Marshall quickly faded from the public consciousness after her death in 1905, her achievements in late Victorian London society, business and hospitality were quite extraordinary.   An extremely successful businesswoman in her own right, running one of only two cookery schools in London, and a highly successful kitchenware and providore business, she also pioneered the cornet or ice-cream cone, investigated the use of liquid gas to freeze ices and designed rapid freezing ice machines such as her patented Ice Cave and Ice Breaker at pps.58-59.  The Book of Ices is highly sought after both for the ice cream recipes and the illustrated catalogue of moulds and ice-cream equipment (pps 45-69).

Scarce early edition with fine colour illustrations.  A nice copy.

§  Driver, 685.6;