THOMAS, Jerry. The Bar-Tender's [Bartenders] Guide; or, How to Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Drinks. Danbury, Connecticut: Behrens Publishing Company, (1887).

Unstated Revised Edition. This copy with the publisher's information printed at title page and front wrap and not with a sticker overlaid the Fitzgerald Publishing Corporation information as sometimes seen. Behrens must have taken over Fitzgerald's at around this time. Original yellow wrappers (printed in black and red), 130 pages, 7 by 4 1/2 inches. Full title continues: "Containing Clear and Reliable Directions For Mixing All The Beverages Used In The United States, Together With The Most Popular British, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish Recipes; Embracing Punches, Juleps, Cobblers, Etc., Etc., In Endless Variety. By Jerry Thomas, Formerly Principal Bar-Tender at the Metropolitan Hotel, New York, and the Planters' House, St. Louis." Jerry Thomas and publishers Dick & Fitzgerald introduced the first cocktail mixing guide in America in 1862 bound with Schultz' Manual for the Manufacture of Cordials which is dropped for this edition. This third edition is notable for containing numerous cocktails that gained popularity in the 1880's and for its inclusion of the Martinez, recognized by cocktail aficionados, as a prelude to the Martini (made with gin, vermouth, bitters, two dashes of maraschino, and ice). Also very likely debuted in this edition is a variant of the Manhattan, (made with vermouth, rye whiskey, bitters, two dashes of curacao or maraschino, and ice). A important work of American bar tending and extremely uncommon in wrappers, more commonly found (when found at all) in cloth. Very Good but for front wrap detached (split right along spine edge), first page signature subsequently loose.

Price: $800.00