Cookery Collections Guide

The Cookery Collection, awarded Designation status in 2005, has its origins in 1,500 printed volumes and a number of manuscript volumes, presented to the Library by Blanche Leigh in 1939. It is made up of French and British works from 1487 to the 1930s. The collection was strengthened in 1962 by John F. Preston, gifting 600 printed volumes (British works before 1861).

The collection has continued to grow, with the acquisition of the Camden Library cookery collection (covering the later 20th Century) in the 1980s. The Michael Bateman print and archive collection was acquired in 2011.

Searching the Collection

Although the different origins of the books are recorded and are indicated in the books, they are now regarded and administered as a single collection. Sixty individual manuscript volumes of cookery and household remedies are listed across Special Collections holdings and are grouped as a collection to aid discovery in the catalogue.

A consistent feature of the collection is its inclusion of long sequences of editions of outstandingly popular works through which it is possible to trace the evolution of the texts over time and thus to observe innovation and changes in taste and fashion, as well as developments in the book trade.While centrally concerned with books of recipes for cookery, the collection also includes many works on food production, on food's medicinal uses, on gardening and other food-related topics. Food for particular groups and records of household management means the collection has far reaching impact beyond the subject of cookery. Special Collections includes complementary holdings on brewing, namely the Chaston Chapman collection.