Lady Sysonby's Cook Book

Ria Sysonby. With an Introduction by Osbert Sitwell. Decorations by Oliver Messel.

Putnam. London. November 1935. First edition. Hardback; illustrated pictorial boards, dust jacket. xvi, 311 pages. Colour frontispiece and 10 colour illustrations by Messel. English. 190 x 130mm. 0.65kg. . Very good, in very good dust jacket; light wear to jacket, small nicks to forecorners and spine ends, light browning, spine browned, not price-clipped; light wear to board edges, slight dustiness to top edge; unlike the majority of copies the jacket is not adhered to the boards, there is evidence on the verso of the jacket of some previous adhesion but the jacket is now loose, there are very limited signs of previous adhesion to the boards.

A first edition of Lady Sysonby's recipe book, with illustrations by Oliver Messel. Victoria ("Ria" ) Ponsonby, Baroness Sysonby, was the mother of Loelia, Duchess of Westminster. Her cook book pulled together recipes from her Great-Grandmother downwards and included ideas for soup, fish, luncheon dishes, meat, puddings, savouries, cakes, sandwiches and mixed drinks. 'Every recipe has been successfully achieved by my own good plain cooks who have never been chefs…'.