The Savoy Cocktail Book.

London: Constable, 1930. First edition of this iconic, definitive text on cocktails. Octavo, original half cloth, pictorial endpapers. Illustrations by Gilbert Rumbold. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Robert Best Wishes and luck with the shaking - Harry C. 1931." The recipient was a personal friend of Harry's and Headwaiter employed in the 1920s at Sovrani's Restaurant. Giovanni Sovrani was employed at The Savoy in London which he left in 1927 to open his own restaurant in Jermyn Street in 1927. Laid in is a note of provenance from the recipient's son explaining the casual nature of the inscription which differs from many of Craddock's more formal and flourishing inscriptions. In very good condition. Laid in is a Bar exam, World-Wide Bar Guide: Famous Drinks From Famous Places, and Fleishmann's Mixer's Manual; each illustrated in color and in near fine condition. Savoy Cocktail Book features 750 of Harry Craddock’s most popular recipes. It is a fascinating record of the cocktails that set London alight at the time—and which are just as popular today. From Slings to Smashes, Fizzes to Flips, and featuring art deco illustrations, Harry Craddock was "the king of cocktail shakers," and The Savoy Cocktail Books contains humorous anecdotes on the origin of the cocktail and its purpose ("for the solace of man"), as well as "an elucidation of the Manners and Customs of people of quality in a period of some equality." "Behind every great bartender (literally) is a roughed-up, stained copy of The Savoy Cocktail Book...it's been an industry must-have since its first edition" (GQ).