A collection of four rare imprints containing receipts and recipes for wine, foodstuffs and medicines, owned and annotated by ‘Tho[ma]s Geldard... Neer Leeds Druggist Born in the year 182[?] In the month of July 4 Day’. As well as inscribing the book with his personal details Geldard, who places himself in the ‘Woodhouse’ area of Leeds (just by the present day university campus), has added in manuscript a few examples of his own medicines, notably a popular tincture of opium, paregoric: ‘For a Cough/ R. parigorick... tinctur of Opii Each Dose is a tea spoonful...’
DESCRIPTION: Small octavo (18x11.5cm) double Greek key motif just visible to boards; 5 raised spine bands. A recipe for Ginger Beer on the front pastedown in Geldard’s hand, with some old scribbling remnants; heavily finger stained. Paper over both inner hinges cracked but binding very sound. Further pencil notes opposite the first of the four title pages - see below. Geldard’s ownership inscription (one page) and recipes (two pages) appear at the end of the book, to be read with the book turned over.
All four imprints are scarce; one seemingly an unrecorded edition.
1 The Housekeeper’s Butler’s and Innkeeper’s Guide for Making... British Wines, Dean and Munday, 1810 - OCLC 639936919 iv [7]-62: Seagram Museum Library only; staining to early pages, a few turned corners
2 The School of Arts; or Fountain of Knowledge... Truly Valuable and Useful Receipts [3] 8-64, some staining [1825?]
3 S W Stavely, Late Confectioner - The Whole Art of Confectionary, Sugar Boiling, Iceing, Candying... Fourth Edition 1816, Chesterfield - Unrecorded edition COPAC locates only 6th from 1821 in BL, also pp72
4 [Josiah Ringsted] The Cattle-keeper’s Assistant or Complete Directory... and Receipts for the Cure of Every Distemper, ND, Manchester A Swindells and Sold by T Thomas and J Sadler, pp90 - lacking final 3 leaves of index. Printed on blue paper. May be OCLC 841882109 - suggested c1780-1800 - Science Museum only
Working as a druggist in the thriving industrial metropolis of mid 19th century Leeds, Geldard would have been largely unregulated in his preparation and sale of medicines, drugs and chemicals to the public. In a competitive market a druggist would focus on the demands of his customers, sometimes specialising in chemical for photography or specialist foods like Worcestershire Sauce. The range of Geldard’s interests are demonstrated in the four imprints here which cover wine and spirit brewing, dyeing and arts materials; confectionary and cattle remedies.
