I have Eliza Acton's English Bread Book for Domestic Use (and by "Domestic" she means a cook, a servant) first edition from 1857.
I also have a facsimile copy for use that I got from Acanthus Books probably 25 years ago.
I scanned the Henri Charpentier book, First Edition from the 1940s, ("Food and Finesse a Bride's Bible") for an onlne service years ago. I was still working but my boss was away for a month, all the nurses were on vacations and I was bored.
He was the "inventor" of Crepes Suzette and the book has some interesting recipes.
Charpentier moved to Redondo Beach in the late 1940s and my ex-husband's mother met him around 1950, they had owned a summer home there since the '20s and lived two houses from his home and restaurant. My ex, then just a friend, took me there for my birthday in 1961 and it was a memorable meal for an amazing price - I think it was less than $10. each and we had lobster, medallions of veal, small portions but several courses. It was a tiny place, probably a total of 10 tables and full and I was told it took two years to get a reservation.
Sadly he died a few months later.
I had never heard of him before that, had no idea that the funny, talkative, friendly old man was world famous. I found a copy of the book he had written about 15 years earlier at a used book store and that was part of the beginning of my collecting cookbooks.
