CRADDOCK, Harry (1876-1963). The Savoy Cocktail Book, London, 1930, 8vo, coloured illustrations and decorations (variable spotting and staining), original pictorial boards (rubbed, inner hinges split, endpapers repaired with adhesive tape). FIRST EDITION.

CRADDOCK, Harry (1876-1963).  The Savoy Cocktail Book. Being in the main a complete compendium of the Cocktails, Rickeys, Daisies, Slings, Shrubs, Smashes, Fizzes, Juleps, Cobblers, Fixes, and other Drinks, known and vastly appreciated in this year of grace 1930, with sundry notes of amusement and interest concerning them, together with subtle Observations upon Wines and their special occasions. Being in the particular an elucidation of the Manners and Customs of people of quality in a period of some equality. London: Constable and Company, Ltd., 1930. 8vo (193 x 128mm). Half title, coloured illustrations and decorations by Gilbert Rumbold, without the "Bacardi Special" slip which is found in some copies at p.[25] (variable spotting and staining). Original cloth-backed coloured and silver pictorial boards, coloured pictorial endpapers (rubbed, some minor erosion to head of spine, inner hinges split and weak, endpapers repaired with adhesive tape resulting in some staining). Provenance: G. Hopkinson (signature in pencil at head of half title). FIRST EDITION, second issue, without the page-number on the title, of this colourful and classic work of Wodehousian whimsy which wittily evokes the style and manners of the 'jazz-age'. The author, an American who emigrated to England in the 1920s and worked in the American Bar at The Savoy, is not above the occasional gloat over the many iniquities of Prohibition which were rife back in the United States at the time of writing. "Many have been the books written about the proper way of partaking of wine. Paris, London and New York have given us many good little Cocktail Books. But where, Oh, where is the book that gives the earnest student all? Every beautiful and perfect Wine, each with its own special and perfect occasion, and every Cocktail known? We searched, and found it not, so thought it as well to sit down and get it put together. Presumption? Yes, - and we have been warned against it! Writers never get paid. Anyhow we're so rich we don't care if it costs us millions. A complete, and absolutely complete book on Drinks and Drinking, Cocktails and Wines, has simply GOT to be written ... If everyone knew even a little about the absorbing subject of absorbing alcohol there would be even less Prohibition in the United States of America than there is now ..." (from the Preface and the Foreword). "This Cocktail should immediately be poured down the sink before it is too late" (p.38, describing the "Bunny Hug Cocktail"). The book is illustrated in its modern protective transparent wrapper.