This dust jacket is a rare variant featuring a classic 1937 design by Alex Jardine for a 1927 first ‘Coronation’ edition of the Café Royal Cocktail Book. It sold for £1150 the Dominic Winter auction of November 8.
A collection of cocktail recipes compiled by William J Tarling, head bartender at the Café Royal and president of the then recently formed United Kingdom Bartenders’ Guild, the book is illustrated by Frederic Carter.
Considered an essential guide to cocktails, it contains some of the earlier recipes using tequila and vodka.
Bearing a 1945, Berlin inscription from Tarling to a Captain DJ Papa, it sold for what seems very likely to be a record £1150 in a Dominic Winter (19.5% buyer’s premium) sale of November 8.
