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73 - One of the masterpieces of culinary literature
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Estimate €800 - €1,200
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Description
One of the masterpieces of culinary literature Alexandre DUMAS. *Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine*. Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1873. Large 8vo, publisher’s percaline [2 ff.], VI pp., [1 f.], 1155 pp., [1 p.], 24 pp. (appendix to the Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine), portraits of Dumas and Vuillemot. Posthumous first edition. This monumental tribute to gastronomy was Dumas’s final work. He wrote it in Roscoff, where his doctor had sent him. He returned the manuscript to his publisher, Lemerre, in March 1870, but the war with Prussia prevented its publication. Dumas died on 5 December 1870. Lemerre entrusted the publication to Leconte de Lisle and Anatole France. They were assisted by a chef, Denis-Joseph Vuillemot. That devil of a man, Dumas, had a voracious appetite: for freedom, for women, for life itself and… for good food. His *Impressions de voyage* contain numerous notes on the curious dishes he was given to taste, and his correspondence is full of letters in which he invites people to come and join him at his table. An occasional cook himself, he even ran a learned and whimsical culinary column in *Le Monte-Cristo*. Dumas’s dictionary is, like Dumas himself, vast and sumptuous; his recipes are generous, often exotic and full of surprises, and the whole is enlivened by anecdotes, fables and stories drawn from his travels and adventures. In the appendix is an ‘Essay on Mustard’, in which he praises the mustard produced by the Bornibus company. A real treat! Vicaire III, 533; Talvart 210 A; Carteret, 242; Munro, 355. Faded percaline, small tears at the top and bottom edges, foxing. Included: - Petit Dictionnaire de cuisine. Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1882. Fort in-8, publisher’s cardboard binding. [2 ff.], III, 819 pp. Abridged edition of *Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine*. Front cover detached, spine damaged, foxing. - *Le Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine*. Paris, Cercle du Livre précieux, Tchou, 1965. Quarto, publisher’s illustrated cloth binding. LXIV pp., [1 f.], 565 pp., illustrations in the text. - *Le Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine*. Paris, Henri Veyrier, Quarto, publisher’s illustrated cloth binding. [2 ff.], 565 pp., illustrations in the text. - *Le Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine*. Preface by Daniel Zimmermann. Paris, Phébus, 2000. Quarto, publisher’s cloth binding, illustrated dust jacket. 614 pp., [1 f.].
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About the sale The World of Dumas Father & Son
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Auction time 10/22/2026 at 2:00 PM
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