Nov 21 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2687 -
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Sale 2687 - Lot 140

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(FOOD & DRINK.) Dr. W.S. Watermire's Family Friend and Adviser: Containing an Invaluable Collection of Over 700 Practical Recipes. 158 pages. Small 8vo, stitched; title page worn and soiled, failed cello tape repairs to outer leaves, lacking at least one index leaf at the end, foxing, moderate dampstaining. East Unadilla, MI: Ball & Hackett, 1861
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Additional Details

The only copy known of this curious compendium. Many of the books we offer are rare or scarce, but we don't often come across a substantial publication which appears to be a unique survival.

The inspiration for this work quite possibly A.W. Chase's popular and often-pirated work published in Ann Arbor, MI, which had a similar title and organization. Chase's title evolved frequently but the 1860 8th edition was "Dr. Chase's Recipes or, Information for Everybody: An Invaluable Collection of about Six Hundred Practical Recipes." However, Watermire appears to be an entirely new production; text searching for various sentence fragments has yielded no matches. The introduction assures: "We have procured, and offer to the public, recipes of all kinds and every description. Some of them have cost from five to fifty dollars. It has cost us a great amount of money to gather together the whole of the recipes which this volume contains."

These recipes are loosely organized under categories such as "Medical Department," "Horse Department," "Toilet Department," and a long "Miscellaneous Department." The book's "Cookery Department" extends from page 58 to 65, and describes mostly desserts. We learn how to "make green apple pie without apples"--the secret ingredient is crackers, much like the infamous Mock Apple Pie often seen described on the back of a Ritz Crackers box. The cookery section is followed by the "Tavern and Saloon-Keepers' Department," including flavored rum and brandy as well as root beer, and "Ice cream very cheap." Interspersed among the later recipes for medicines and household tips are a few other culinary recipes, including one horrifying recipe we would not attempt even if it were legal: "To roast a fowl alive." We are assured: "Set him on the table when done, and he will cry as you carve him into pieces."

Adding to the curiosity factor, this appears to be the earliest known (perhaps only) imprint from Unadilla, Michigan, then known as East Unadilla. The publishers Ball & Hackett are otherwise unknown. The only adult male Ball in the 1860 census for Unadilla was shoemaker Alanson Ball (1815-1877). His partner was likely Uriah Hackett (1832-1906), a Unadilla carpenter in 1860 who later ran a drugstore. We can find no indication that the credited author W.S. Watermire was an actual person, although a few of the recipes bear titles like "Dr. Watermire's All-Healing Salve." The preface, signed only "The Authors," may have been by Ball & Hackett.

Not found in Lowenstein, Cagle, OCLC, or auction records.

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