Manuscript Location

Library of Congress, Rare Book/Special Collections Reading Room (Jefferson LJ239)

Place of Origin

England ➔ Isle of Wight ➔ Cowes

Date of Composition

1687-1763

Description

This English recipe book is written in a tall  (24 centimeters, 9.5 inches) leather-bound notebook with two clasps. The first page is inscribed, ""This is my deare wives booke. Tho. Cole." The inscription is followed by 173 pages of culinary and medical recipes written in several different hands. An index written on six leaves (different from the paper of the notebook) has been bound into the volume preceding the inscription. The index is dated at Cowes, a town on the Isle of Wight, August 1687. There are gaps in the pagination, where quantities of leaves, letters, and slips of various sizes have been inserted, some dated from 1763 to 1875. The binding and one of the two clasps have broken under the strain.