Americana Eight Cocktail Napkins Hand Blocked with Recipes and the Histories of Eight Famous Drinks Anonymous

Good in its original 1/4 red paper and gold, jacquard, printed covered boards with blue and red text and decorations on the front board. An oblong, small octavo of 7 1/2 by 8 3/4 inches with wear to the paper covering all around the edges of the boards. The text is printed on a thin and extremely fragile paper stock which is well tanned with a number of closed tears and minor chips to the margins. All eight cocktail napkins are present and in fine condition in bright colors. 18 pages (17 numbered), rectos mounted with illustrated hand-colored cocktail napkins , versos with cocktail recipes. Nothing known of author, publisher or date or place of publication. However, it is rather obvious that this volume was published during the era of Prohibition (Jan. 1920 to Dec. 1933) as all of the cocktail recipes call for nonalcoholic beverages. The modified, Prohibition ready, recipes are for: Manhattan, Blue Blazer, Deadwood Duck, Rip Van Winkle Sleeper, Belmont Park, Alabama, Barbary Coast, and New Orleans Drip. The dedication in the book asserts its tongue-in-cheek intent: "To Serious Drinkers Everywhere." Of particular interest is the fact that a small (7/8 by 5/16 inch) slip of paper with blue and red printing with the word "France" is pasted to the upper fore corner of of the front paste down for each copy that has come to market. The importation laws in the US at the time required all foreign goods to have some indication of where they were coming from. This title was therefore printed in France. The Internet site of Barina Craft in their essay on Barbary Coast Cocktails includes a footnote which reads: "Americana Recipes And The Histories Of Eight Famous Drinks is a rare bartending book not only because of the limited number of copies of its first and only edition, but also due to its binding and illustrations. Each of the eight cocktails . were depicted by a hand colored woven fabric cloth cocktail napkin with tassel ends." This rarity is borne out by OCLC reporting only one copy is held by an institution (Bowling Green State Univ).