![COOKERY. Manuscript receipt book of Lady Catherine Bacon, n.d. [1680s] - 1738-9, the majority probably autograph, a few receipts with decorative penstrokes to opening initials, approximately 302 pages, folio, index, contemporary limp vellum (heavily worn and stained, back-strip and ties mostly lacking, a few leaves loose at the end). Provenance: ownership inscription of Lady Catherine Bacon (née Montagu, 1660-1757), eighth child and third daughter of Samuel Pepys's cousin and patron Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich; she m. 1st Nicholas Bacon, 2nd Revd Balthazar Gardeman (her ownership inscription on f.1; a number of the receipts also addressed to her).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2012/CSK/2012_CSK_06237_0237_000(cookery_manuscript_receipt_book_of_lady_catherine_bacon_nd_1680s_-_173072128).jpg?w=1)
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COOKERY. Manuscript receipt book of Lady Catherine Bacon, n.d. [1680s] - 1738-9, the majority probably autograph, a few receipts with decorative penstrokes to opening initials, approximately 302 pages, folio, index, contemporary limp vellum (heavily worn and stained, back-strip and ties mostly lacking, a few leaves loose at the end). Provenance: ownership inscription of Lady Catherine Bacon (née Montagu, 1660-1757), eighth child and third daughter of Samuel Pepys's cousin and patron Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich; she m. 1st Nicholas Bacon, 2nd Revd Balthazar Gardeman (her ownership inscription on f.1; a number of the receipts also addressed to her).
Lady Catherine's receipt book, which is notable for its extent, for the detail of its recipes, and for the period of time over which it appears to have been maintained, covers a great range of preparations for meats, fish, vegetables, fruits, puddings and jellies, pickles and preserves, wines, beers and perfumes, in many cases naming the source of the recipe amongst her circle of family and friends; as usual, the receipts also include a high proportion of medical prescriptions for the most common complaints (and some unusual ones), including Mrs Browning's recipes 'For the Piles' and for 'A vomit alwaise ready', Mrs Gasken's 'Powder for Wormes', others 'For Convulsions in the Nerves', 'For the biting of a Mad Dog', 'For a Looseness', 'For a Horse's wind' and even a herbal remedy 'Against the Plague'. The receipts of the last 30 pages or so are fairly regularly dated, from 1710 until 1738-9 (when Lady Catherine was nearly 80), but the first entries are likely to date from soon after her first marriage in the 1680s. A few of the later receipts are explicitly intended for her, including 'Dr Monrows Receipt for Rhumatick pains to Mrs Bacon', others for her second husband, including 'For a Consumption or Cough Mr Gardeman downe to the bottom'.
Lady Catherine's receipt book, which is notable for its extent, for the detail of its recipes, and for the period of time over which it appears to have been maintained, covers a great range of preparations for meats, fish, vegetables, fruits, puddings and jellies, pickles and preserves, wines, beers and perfumes, in many cases naming the source of the recipe amongst her circle of family and friends; as usual, the receipts also include a high proportion of medical prescriptions for the most common complaints (and some unusual ones), including Mrs Browning's recipes 'For the Piles' and for 'A vomit alwaise ready', Mrs Gasken's 'Powder for Wormes', others 'For Convulsions in the Nerves', 'For the biting of a Mad Dog', 'For a Looseness', 'For a Horse's wind' and even a herbal remedy 'Against the Plague'. The receipts of the last 30 pages or so are fairly regularly dated, from 1710 until 1738-9 (when Lady Catherine was nearly 80), but the first entries are likely to date from soon after her first marriage in the 1680s. A few of the later receipts are explicitly intended for her, including 'Dr Monrows Receipt for Rhumatick pains to Mrs Bacon', others for her second husband, including 'For a Consumption or Cough Mr Gardeman downe to the bottom'.