COURT COOKERY: or, The Compleat English Cook. Containing the Choicest and Newest Receipts For making Soops, Pottages, Fricasseys, Harshes, Farces, Ragoos, Cullises, Sauces, Forc'd - Meats and Souses; with various Ways of Dressing most Sorts of Flesh, Fish and Fowl, Wild and Tame; with the best Methods of Potting and Collaring. ... Also Of Pickling, Candying and Preserving: With a Bill of Fare for every Month in the Year, and the latest Improvements in Cookery, &c by Smith, R[obert] - 1723

London: Printed for T. Wotton, at the Three Daggers in Fleet-street, 1723. 1st edition (Axford, p. 103 [for the 2nd edition]; Bitting, p. 440 [for the 2nd edition]; Cagle 1001; Maclean, p. 137; Oxford, pp 55-56; Vicaire, columns 794-795 [for the 1794 Dublin edition]. Period full panelled calf binding (old rebacking). Renewed eps. Custom-cut clear mylar wrapper. General binding wear with front board mostly detached [supported by mylar wrapper]. Spine label chipped. Usual toning & foxing to paper. Withal, an About VG copy of a cook book uncommon in the trade.. [4], 112, [8 (Index)], 82, [14] pp. Index & 4 page advert concludes volume. The work is in two parts, each with a separate index; 'the first is devoted to cookery, the second to confectionary'. [Maclean]. Head- tailpieces 8vo: A4 B - H8 I4, 2A - F8. 7-3/4" x 4-3/4"

The author describes himself as "Cook (under Mr. Lamb) to King William; as also the Dukes of Buckingham, Ormond, D'Aumont (the French Ambassador) and others of the Nobility and Gentry." In the preface, the author states, "It is true, there are several Books of Cookery already extant, but most of 'em very defective and erroneous, and others filled with old Receipts, that are impracticable at this Time." He goes on to denounce the work of his former chief, Patrick Lamb, who's work Royal Cookery had been published years earlier, and attacked him for pirating other people's receipts... [MacLean]