Auction Name: 2025 December 15 Rare Books Signature® Auction

Lot Number: 45159

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6323*45159

Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States, Together with the Most Popular British, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish Recipes, Embracing Punches, Juleps, Cobblers, etc., etc., etc., in Endless Variety. To Which is Appended a Manual for the Manufacture of Cordials, Liquors, Fancy Syrups, &c., &c.... Illustrated with Description Engravings. The Whole Containing Over 600 Valuable Recipes. By Christian Shultz. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, Publishers, 1862.

12mo. Illustrations throughout, including an illustration on the Preface leaf signed "Avery." 8 pp. of publisher's catalog at rear, including an ad for this work with the title The Bar-Tender's Guide and Bon-Vivant's Companion (price listed $1.50), additional publisher's ads as endpapers. Publisher's green ribbed cloth, decoratively stamped in blind, spine and front board stamped in gilt and front board decoratively stamped in gilt with an image of a man raising a cocktail glass and smoking a cigar.

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of the first book on mixology and drink-making ever published in the United States, with the publication date "1862" present on the title page, and the stereographer and printer noted on the copyright page. In the First State binding priced "$1.50" and with the gilt illustration. Later states have the price raised to $2.00, then $2.50, and with various, usually less elaborate, designs.

The first issue appears to have been simultaneously published under two titles: "The Bar-tender's Guide, a complete cyclopaedia of Plain and Fancy Drinks" and the present title, "How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion." RARE in any state, particularly in the desirable first-issue binding with the gilt man raising a glass and priced "$1.50."

Jeremiah "Jerry" Thomas (1830-1885) was an American bartender regarded as the "father of American mixology." Larger than life and often adorned with jewels, his signature drink was the Blue Blazer - a mixture of whiskey and water ignited and passed between two glasses so that, "if well done this will have the appearance of a continued stream of liquid fire." Thomas lived and worked throughout the United States, continually learning and refining his craft. He became a nationwide sensation; his New York Times obituary noted that he was "at one time better known to club men and men about town than any other bartender in this city, and he was popular among all classes." The introduction to the present volume characterizes Thomas, "his very name is synonymous, in the lexicon of mixed drinks, with all that is rare and original." That reputation endures today, more than a century after this guide first appeared in print.

Condition: Abrasion to front board with a few minor stains; abrasion to spine head with a small loss of cloth; corners pushed and lightly rubbed; spine ends a bit pushed. Dampstaining affecting lower right corner of cloth and text (almost assuredly from mixing drinks and reading recipes at the same time); pencil drawings on prelims; lightly browned and with a few spots.

References: Noling, p. 403; see also Biting, p. 459 (later editions) and Simon (1913), p. 10. See also Michael Inman, Susan Jaffe Tane Curator of Rare Books, January 16, 2024, "New to the Rare Book Division: The First Modern Cocktail Manual."

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