1909 The Good Housekeeping Woman's Home Cookbook by Isabel Gordon Curtis

Isabel Gordon Curtis is one of my absolute favorite cookbook authors and this cookbook is an example of why. Her recipes are simple, classic and easy to follow. The history that sorrounds her makes her seem spunky yet classic, I love that. She came to America all the way from Scotland and in her lifetime she had quite a few very popular magazine editing jobs under her belt, Collier's Weekly, the Delineator and Success Magazine being just a few. While getting her start in the highly competitve magazine field she used to say that "No wider experience can be gained than in answering the questions that come from housekeepers to a home magazine. In learning how to solve problems for other people, you absorb a multiplicity of knowledge that cannot be achieved in one home." So combining a special lady like Curtis and a big name like Good Houskeeping, they made cookbook history.
This peticular cookbook was promoted as being the first to come out with the new slender size to help the housewife with it's space saving design, it also has blank sheets for notes on every other page. Good Housekeeping also prided itsef on it's recipes being tested by not only Curtis but company paid testers and it's magazine subscribers as well. It's a great example of one of Good Housekeeping's ideals as a company, to try and make housekeeping more efficient and buisness-like to take some of the stress out of running a house in the early 1900's. A true original and very special antique cookbook to collectors.

A sweet 1930's Good Housekeeping Cookbook

Simple Pancakes

Sometimes I'm amazed at how some people still think they have to buy bisquick or pancake mix in order to make pancakes or waffles. When all the mixes are, is simple ingrediants we already have thrown together in a box along with a whole bunch stuff I cant pronounce. This recipe is from The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer and her daughter Marion Rombauer Becker.

Pancakes

Makes about 14 4in. cakes(or 8 of "my family size")

Ingredients

1 1/2 Cups Flour
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar
1 3/4 baking powder

-Sift together and in a seperate bowl beat 2 eggs lightly, to this add

3 Tbsp melted butter
1-1 1/4 cups milk

-Combine wet ingrediants to dry ingrediants and brown batter on hot griddle.

Tips for the new Antique Cookbook Collector

TIPS
* Just because a price guide said it was worth a certain price doesn't mean that's what it's going for. A book is worth only what someone is willing to pay for it, just remember that if you're thinking of selling later. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's valuable or rare. Usually authors that are setting prices are selling at the same time and in my opinion not a fair assesment of the market.

* The same word of caution goes for looking up a books worth online. There are scams going on a certain search shopping site where the seller lists the book WAY overpriced and then lists it again at a more normal price to make the lesser look like a steal. I feel terrible for the people that think their cookbook "was going for $80 on the internet!" when in actuality it's realistically worth $15. Find someone knowledgeable and transparent in prices and ask them questions. We all know if they are selling books as a profession they're expecting to walk away with some kind of profit for knowing their field and uncovering these hidden treasure and that’s acceptable but they shouldn't be trying to scam anyone. Check feedback scores!
* Be careful of some online auction sites. Some people unload their crappiest and damaged stuff online making the description of the condition sound acceptable, hiding damage with “creative” camara angles and then ending up having a no return policy when you find out that the description was "sugar-coated". On the flip side you can get amazing steals this way also, it’s a gamble but sometimes it's the only way to get your hands on some of the bigger names. Sometimes you have to start at the bottom of the condition ladder and work your way up, if that's the only thing you can afford. Ask for pics though, the seller should be happy to oblige even if you ask for 20 more pics!

*Usually in the book collecting world writing and personalizing in the copy would decrease the value but that's not the case with cookbooks. The average cookbook collector values the personal touches and the little notes next to the recipes.
*Buy what you like and think "what if I never sell this book" will you be happy to keep it forever. If you are then in my opinion it's a win-win.
*Have fun but set a price limit!
*Research the authors and who they are. There are so many informative articles that go into the history of what makes a book so valuable. Maybe it's the illustrations and cover art or it's the 1st printing of a recipe classic.
*Condition is a huge deal and ALWAYS buy the best you can afford.
Mistake printings can also contribute to a book's value just like baseball cards.
*You can get a feel for whether or not you're going to find anything in vendors stall just by reading a couple titles. Do not spend 2 hours in every stall or store reading every title! Although this is coming from somebody that has spent 6 hours doing the exact thing I suggested not to do:) Odds are that a guy selling antique car books and mags won't have a 1st edition Joy of Cooking but again these are ODDS, So sometimes you gotta play them:)

1950's Retro Classic

1950
-The Cookbooks of the 50's are great for the retro lovers in all of us. With the 50’s comes images of kids with slingshots in their back pockets and happy families around the breakfast table, they make you happy and smile just thinking about them. At least to younger generations, talk to someone straight out of the 50’s and they’ll probably paint you a different picture but great covers of dancing hotdogs and women in pearls standing over stoves came out the era. I'm personally not a big fan of the recipes, Jello salads and americanized chop suey all over the place, they’re usually very creative, shall we say with ingredient pairings but great nontheless. At this time there was a huge explosion of pan-am and latin culture love, think Ricki Ricardo ( I Love Lucy). From that comes Chiquita Bannana and Brazil Nuts and etc. in a lot of the advertising and recipes.

1940's Vintage Cookbooks

1940
-The cookbooks of the 40's are great! There’re great dinner party and hostessing ones at about this time. If you can find some of the WW2 related ones they're super facinating to read. Subjects like how to bake with limited eggs and milk, what types of cuts of meat to pick to make you budget stretch and of course, victory garden cookbooks and home canning guides. The rationing chapters that are usually added to the bigger name cookbooks can sneak through a dealers eyesight and can be picked up for a steal if you know what your looking for. Usually very patriotic in illustrations and general theme. They're also valuable because of cross-collectibles meaning more than just cookbook collectors would want them. Company advertising booklets started to aim their efforts at homemakers and housewives at about this time due to leftover processed food products from the war. Their pitch? Let us make your life easier so you can enjoy the funner asspects of life like having dinner parties and bridge luncheons that lo and behold also had to include their products naturally, of course.

1930's The Great Depression Years

1930
- The cookbooks of the 30’s are gems for the obvious reasons. These women had to do it all, maintaining life as normally as possible, but with the drastic decrease to incomes that literally happened overnight due to the Great Depression. Another reason that these cooksbooks are a rare treat is due to the fact that there weren't alot of companies and publishing houses printing any new books for obvious reasons. The cookbooks that were published are usually budget-minded and very practical. Money saving tips and stretching your dollar themes are common.

This is where the glamorous and excessive recipes of the roaring 20's came to dead stop and the start of practical and miserly recipes of the 1930s started. Hostessing large, grand parties stopped. There was still entertaining but in more of a small and intimate setting with close friends, think bridge clubs and church luncheons These are where some amazing stories and recipes can be found. Makes you humble and grateful!

1900-1910 Cookbooks Part 3 of 3

Part 3
A truly great antique and vintage cookbook collector should be able appreciate what cookbooks from different eras have to offer and should learn what makes each decade special. A great deal of history can be learned from each decades own collection of cookbooks to point it's almost overwhelming, so to make it easier let's break it down into years and highlight what makes each decade special:

1900-1910- Cookbooks from the early 1900's are great for the reason that women and views of them were changing, women wanted acknowledgement and recognition. They started to make cooking more of a scientific accomplishment than it had been in the past. That's when exact measurements came out and sanitation and cleanliness facts were made available to the masses in a way it hadn't before and how did they accomplish such a huge endevor? How did they get the information to the masses? In cookbooks! The majority of books that were published were authored by women FOR women. They were generally the only non-fiction books that were controlled by women and a great way to promote values and lifestyles. They were the descision makers of the home and cookbooks were a way to change how society as whole thought, as their choices filtered to the next generations through their children.