The Butler’s Pantry Book By Elizabeth Drury

Pre-owned. The days of butlers, footmen, housekeepers, valets and ladies’ maids are gone, and with them age-old expertise in looking after and serving wine, polishing furniture and silver, washing fine lace and silk stockings, preventing boots from squeaking, cooking with pewter and tin vessels, and preparing cordials and cosmetic juices. The Butler’s Pantry Book brings together, from servants’ manuals, housekeeping digests and receipt books, methods which are gradually disappearing from use and memory, and describes the daily tasks and routines of the servants who practised them – from the ‘multifarious and incessant business’ of the footman to the grinding monotony of the housemaid’s chores. Evocatively illustrated with contemporary photographs and engravings, the book is intriguing to read both for the vanished traditions it recalls and the housekeeping lore it brings to light. Bound in brown cloth with gilt titling to spine. Dustjacket price-clipped and sun bleached in the spine area. There is a small not in pencil at top right of the first page. Some tanning to pages but otherwise in very good condition. Hardcover. Published by Random House New Zealand 1981