The People's Cook Book of Practical Receipts for Every-Day Dishes. Compiled and Collected from the most Reliable and Approved Sources [by] Geo. W. Flint & Co. 61 Asylum Street, Hartford

[Hartford, Conn: The Company; Press of A.W. Lang, Courant Building, 1885. Small octavo (14.5 x 12 cm.), 32 pages. Cover title: Do You Keep House? If Not, Why Not? Printer from cover. Illustrated advertisements interspersed. An engaging promotional cookbook for George W. Flint & Co., a Hartford-based-based household furnishings supplier. The ninety or so recipes found here are indeed "every-day", although Breeze Pudding and Hickory Nut Macaroons at the very least evoke something of an era. What grabs attention, rather, are engravings of the sort that might have been seen in the British weekly Punch, including a set of caricatures designed to show the metamorphosis of a curmudgeon into a happy hysteric - a result of a satisfactory purchase from Flint & Co., no doubt. There are, too, intricate commercial images – a rattan baby carriage; a parlor chair with silk fabric. The artist(s) is (are) uncredited. ~ Some pages mildly stained; shelfworn and soiled, spine and corners chipped; rear panel fore-edge with two small closed tears. Stapled, in faded wrappers, with an illustration of the satisfied customer who appears within. Good. Scarce. [OCLC locates one copy of this Hartford issue (Conn. Historical Society), and two copies of Worcester issues (both at Special Collections of the University of Pennsylvania – one with the same pagination as the present copy; the second copy with thirty-two pages).