This book is a collection of short and witty pieces about cookery, by various mid-nineteenth century French writers including Alexandre Dumas and Theophile Gautier (whose contribution is a charming account of a curious meal at Greenwich on an appalling English Sunday). The edges of the cover are rubbed, and the endpapers tanned, but the binding is tight and the pages are in very good condition. Date of binding not known. The letters JC (from a stamp) appears at the front and on the verso of the last page of the table of contents.