Appert, M. Louis | The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years
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First English language edition of the first book on canning as a food preservation technique.
Louis Appert (1749-1841) "learned the art of cooking from his father, who was an hotelier. He worked at first in the service of the Duke of Deux-Ponts and was officier de bouche to the Princess of Forbach. In 1780 he established himself in business as a confectioner in the Rue des Lombards in Paris. The Directory government offered a prize of 12,000 francs for the discovery of a process to preserve the food destined for the army. Appert perfected a sterilization method which was named after him - appertisation. In 1804 he built a factory at Massy (on land where peas and beans had been cultivated) and started up the production of bottled preserved foods. In 1810 the government officially recognized his discovery and awarded him the prize. In the same year, Appert published L’Art de conserver pendant, which generously made his process available to all. Moreover, his work was republished in 1811 and 1813 under the title Livre de tous les menages. The fall of the Empire ruined him but in 1822, by which time others had become rich on his discovery, the state recognized his achievement in conceiving the process by granting him a small income. In the premises which were then allowed him, he pursued his experiments on the clarification of wines, the purification of bone gelatin, preservation in cans, etc, but he subsequently died in poverty” (The Concise Larousse Gastronomique, p. 34) - A Work Published by Order of the French Minister of the Interior... Translated from the French. London: for Black, Parry, and Kingsbury, booksellers to the Hon. East-India Company, 1811. Duodecimo (176 × 103 mm). Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers, double line rules to boards gilt, blue speckled edges. Folding plate. Contemporary armorial bookplate of William Middleton Esq. Some wear to extremities, only minor toning and offsetting to contents. An excellent, unsophisticated copy.