How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivant’s Companion… to which is appended A Manual for the Manufacture of Cordials, Liquors, Fancy Syrups… made a record $3600 (£2590) at PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium) of San Francisco.
A later state example of the first edition in the blind-stamped and gilt lettered publisher’s binding, and originally priced at $2.50, this work by Jerry Thomas and Christian Schulz was the first such guide published in the US.
Nicknamed ‘The Professor’, it was Thomas, perhaps the most famous American bartender of the 19th century, who was primarily responsible for collecting and codifying its contents.
Contained within its 250 or so pages are detailed instructions on how to mix drinks that until that time had remained a largely oral tradition, but it also included many of his own creations and laid down principles involved in mixed drinks of all types.
The sale took place on June 24.
