Vintage cocktail books

I recently got a very cool present – The Wine-Drinker’s Manual 1830 Reprint: In Vino Veritas.
 
VintageCocktailBooks.com, in collaboration with Amazon offers several selections, with very fun titles like Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks 1869 Reprint and The Flowing Bowl – What And When To Drink 1891 Reprint: Full Instructions How To Prepare, Mix And Serve Beverages.  All of the books have been digitized from old originals – in my copy you can see traces of Dewey Decimal numbers hand-written on the inside cover as well as a stamp that says, “Harvard College Library.  From the Heirs of George C. Dempsey”.

I want to share a quote with you from the first chapter, “On Wine-drinking”:

“The antiquity and propriety of drinking wine is not, however, matter of question.  The Archbishop of Seville, Antonio de Solis, who lived to be 110 years old, drank Wine; and even that wonderful preacher of propriety, Cornaro, did the same.  All we differ about is quantity; and this is a point on which we do not pretend to reconcile our readers, for that would be too quackical a pretension for any Wine-drinker to aspire to.  Sir William Temple, as good and grave a man as any of the ‘illustrious’ of our country, was pleased to lay down a rule, and limit propriety to three glasses.  ‘I drink one glass, ‘ says he ‘for health, a second for refreshment, a third for a friend; but he offers a fourth is an ‘enemy’.”

25 April 1628 – 27 January 1699

Yes, this book was printed in London.

Sir William Temple was an author, statesman and diplomat who served as the provost of Trinity College in Dublin and acted as a consultant to Charles II.

Doesn’t he look like a thirsty spirit?  Maybe he poured his fourth glass out for his homies.