Whilst hot drinks on rare books would definitely not be advisable, rare books on hot drinks, on the other hand, are proving extremely popular. Alongside a rise of interest in books on cookery, both antiquarian and more modern, books and manuscripts relating to tea, coffee and cocoa have also attracted strong bidding at auction, from private collectors and institutions alike.
Although tea had famously been enjoyed and taken for medicinal purposes in the Orient for centuries, it was not properly introduced into Europe until the 17th century, by Dutch traders. The first mention in Western printing of tea as a beverage is generally considered to be Navigationi e Viaggi by Venetian explorer Giambattista Ramusio, first published in the 1550s. In this work, tea is referred to as 'Chai Catai' ('Tea of China'). Ramusio's collection of voyages and discoveries includes a narrative where a Persian merchant, Hajji Mahommed, is credited with introducing tea to Europe. He describes the use and benefits of tea in Cathay (China), noting its medicinal properties for various ailments and recommending it be consumed hot.
Coffee made its debut in Europe only a few years after tea, surprisingly perhaps. The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century, in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen, but in terms of print, one of the earliest mentions in European literature is via the German physician & botanist Leonhard Rauwolf, who was the first European to describe the preparation of coffee, witnessed in Aleppo, in his 1583 work Aigentliche Beschreibung der Raise. The modest coffee plant also enjoyed its first appearance in print around the same time, drawing a mention in De plantis Aegypti liber (1592), by Prosperi Alpini, who saw the plant whilst in Cairo. Coffee's popularity, and controversy, in Europe are well documented in various books, broadside and pamphlets from the 16th, 17th & 18th centuries, not least due to the coffee houses frequented by the intellectual and chattering classes.
Food & Drink at Forum Auctions
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Hot Drinks Brewing up a Storm at Forum Auctions
Rare books on Tea, Coffee & Cocoa have featured amongst some of our specialist auctions on food, drink and agriculture over recent years, with the bidding often reaching boiling point! We have reviewed a selection of some of our favourites for you to pour over here. For more information on books relating to Food & Drink, do please contact our specialist in this department, Justin Phillips, who is steeped in the history and lore of culinary traditions.
- Simon De Molinariis, Ambrosia Asiatica, seu, De virtute, & usu herbae the sive cia..., first edition, Geneva, 1672. Sold for £1,125.
A scarce little work on tea, we can trace no examples at auction. This work was noted as to be the first to refute Simon Paulii's theory that the Dutch myrtle plant was the European relation of the oriental tea plant.
READ MORE - Philippe Sylvestre Dufour, Traitez nouveaux & curieux du Café, du Thé et du Chocolate, first complete edition, Lyon, 1685. Sold for £940.
A classic reference on the early history and methods of preparation of coffee, tea & chocolate: "Like sugar in the two previous centuries, the new drinks [coffee, tea, and chocolate] were first classified as medicines, and their reputed curative properties only added to their exotic appeal." (Willan & Cherniavsky, p. 138).
READ MORE - Nicolas de Blégny, Le Bon usage du thé, du caffé et du chocolat pour la préservation & pour la guerison des maladies, first edition, Paris, 1687. Sold for £1,100.
An excellent illustrated work, with engraved frontispiece and 13 full-page illustrations. Blégny was physician to Queen Maria Theresa of Spain, and later Louis XIV.
READ MORE - John Ovington, An Essay upon the Nature and Qualities of Tea, first edition, London, 1699. Sold for £2,500.
Ovington's encomium on tea that extols its ability to among other cure "Gout and Stone" among other ailments. It was later satirised in John Waldron's Satyr Against Tea.
READ MORE - Duncan Campbell, A Poem upon tea, first edition, 1735. Sold for £1,386.
Rare, with only a handful of copies recorded between ESTC and WorldCat. The fuller title goes on, 'Wherein its antiquity, its several virtues and influences are set forth; and the Wisdom of the sober Sex commended in chusing so mild a Liquor for their Entertainments...Also, the Objections against Tea, answered...'
READ MORE - Simon Pauli, A Treatise on Tobacco, Tea, Coffee, and Chocolate, first English edition, London, 1746. Sold for £475.
Translated by Dr. Robert James, a friend of Dr. Samuel Johnson and physician to King George III. The first, Latin edition appeared in 1665.
READ MORE - Thomas Short, Discourses on Tea, Sugar, Milk, Made-Wines, Spirits, Punch, Tobacco, &c., first edition, London, 1750. Sold for £475.
'This work holds its own place in the eighteenth-century literature of beverages' (André Simon).
READ MORE - A Treatise on the inherent Qualities of the Tea-Herb: being a Account of the Natural Virtues of the Bohea, Green, and Imperial Teas...Compiled by a Gentleman of Cambridge, first edition, London, 1750. Sold for £1,875.
A scarce work; ESTC lists only 4 UK copies (BL & Cambridge, each with 2 copies) and another at Harvard.
READ MORE - An Act to allow a drawback of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to any of His Majesty's colonies or plantations in America; to increase the deposit on Bohea tea to be sold at the India Company's sales, London, 1773 with An act to repeal so much of an act made in the seventh year of His present Majesty's reign, intituled, an act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs upon the exportation...of coffee and cocoa nuts of the produce of the said colonies or plantations, London, 1770. Sold for £325.
A couple of Acts of Parliament relating to tea, coffee and cocoa, in the build up to the 'Boston Tea Party'.
READ MORE - John Ellis, An Historical Account of Coffee, London, 1774. Sold for £2,500.
Includes a hand-coloured folding plate of the coffee plant. John Ellis (c.1710-76), worked for many years as a trading agent in the West Indies, during which period he acquired a detailed of knowledge of numerous American plants.
READ MORE - William White, To Make Sir Hans Sloane's Milk Chocolate in the Pot, printed broadside advertisement, London, ?1788. Sold for £875.
Scarce broadside printed for a coffee dealer of 8 Greek Street, Soho, London. Sir Hans Sloane, famous as a physician and collector, introduced the idea of hot chocolate made from milk rather than water.
READ MORE - John Coakley Lettsom, The Natural History of the Tea-Tree. A New Edition, London, 1799. Sold for £500.
An important work, illustrated with plates, with observations on the medical qualities of tea, and on the effects of tea-drinking.
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