The Hunt and Gather of Old Cookbooks

Note: Tonight we have decided, as a treat for the family, to go to the Norwood Theatre in Bracebridge to see the newest version of that western classic, "The Lone Ranger". I don't care as much about the movie as the hot buttered popcorn and the ice cold pop that I remember as a kid in this same great theatre on Manitoba Street.

THE HUNT AND GATHER OF OLD COOKBOOKS

By Ted Currie

     As an introductory note, for today's blog, and the 96th anniversary of the death of Canadian landscape artist, Tom Thomson, back in July 1917, on Algonquin Park's Canoe Lake, I wanted to share a tiny story about the painter, many wouldn't know about.

    There was an occasion, while Thomson was on a painting excursion, on Smoke Lake, that he had an interesting encounter with a park ranger. The ranger had witnessed a spiral of smoke above the evergreens, on a point of land, and felt it necessary to investigate the source. As he climbed the hillside, to where the smoke was rising, he noticed a canoe pulled up from shore, and some camping gear. When he finally got the camper in view, he noticed it was Thomson, sitting adjacent to a fire in a small pit, with an oven-like device over top. He was depicting the scene, as he saw it, on his paint board, of the Smoke Lake environs. When the ranger got close, so that Thomson could hear his footfall, the artist welcomed him to the site, and the park official immediately commented on how much the art work looked like the scene below. I'm not sure about this, but I believe Thomson, as he did many times in his life, was so appreciative of the comment, he offered the ranger the sketch when he was finished. Best of all, he handed the ranger a piece of his freshly baked, still hot blueberry pie, from his handmade reflector oven positioned beside the wood fire. The ranger that day, got a painting and a delicious slice of Thomson's famous fireside cooking. It is said that while Thomson was an outstanding artist, he was also highly skilled as a campsite chef. This is my offering on this, the 96th anniversary, of the alleged drowning, of artist Tom Thomson.

    In the antique and collectible trade, you live by the saying, “never say never!” There are windfalls and droughts in the collecting enterprise. Since beginning the mission to collect old cookbooks and handwritten recipes, about twenty-five years ago, it has been one of those hit and miss realities dealers and collectors dread but anticipate getting in the way.

    Without warning, you will frequently run into dry-spells that can last a week, or several years between big finds. As an avid art collector, who sells numerous art pieces annually, I can usually find ten or more good quality paintings every month, out on the normal day to day hustings. Nothing requiring several hundred miles of motoring or extreme exertion on our part, to make quality finds. Just passive, enjoyable travel between source businesses and yard sales. And as pickers, it doesn't necessitate us going to art auctions, or even art gallery exhibitions. I can’t afford their prices but I can usually find some high quality pieces in second hand shops, flea markets, yard sales and a few moderately priced antique shops. It’s the same now as cookbooks and handwritten recipes. I expect to find some each month. At the very least, a couple of old cookbooks done by church groups as fundraisers. Here’s what happens.

    Take for example, Martha Stewart's popular books. As they relate to home entertaining, and an interesting array of seasonal recipes, my wife likes to collect, I started a mission to acquire all of her books, and I didn’t mind duplicates. The holy grail would be a signed and personally inscribed first edition of “Entertaining,” from the early 1980's, which can sell for around $200 and up. I’ve sold a couple of unsigned first editions, before I got this idea to collect all her work. When I began this Martha campaign, I could find her books all over the place. I was finding one or two a week. I was even turning down those in less than pristine condition, because I assumed with the abundant supply, I could afford to be picky about things like condition.

    I wrote a number of columns, some years back, about my interest in Martha Stewart first editions, for several feature publications, and online blogs. As a result, I got many kind comments and praise for this tribute to Martha Stewart, and her contribution to home entertaining, food preparation, decorating and the antique business particularly. Her creativity expressed in these books, has certainly helped businesses like ours, selling vintage decorator pieces, antiques and collectibles, ranging from kitchen-ware to vintage glass and pottery. And what happens when the writer / antique hunter gets too liberal with enthusiasm for a subject, usually ends the same.

   Shortly after the articles ran, the shortage of Martha Stewart books became quite noticeable, missing from the shelves of the same places I acquire most of my vintage wares. Being excited about what you collect, and publishing this, often leads to copy-cat purchasing. I’m delighted to promote her work but disappointed I’ve created a new interest in her earlier first editions. Such that there are now many more hands reaching for those few remaining editions. Vendors are putting up the prices, and even old book shops are keeping Martha’s books in stock, because of growing demand for her earlier works. Even the unauthorized biographies, while annoying to her, have done quite the reverse for cookbook collectors. Those who find her a fascinating study and amazing personality, despite the “tell-alls,” her own books get even more attention. With more interest of course, the more you expect price increases, especially for first editions in pristine condition.

    “Entertaining,” is a sweetheart of a book, because it was landmark in the creation of new interest in an old theme; the large dinner party, with a new and exciting emphasis. It wasn’t just for the wealthy. It was for any one with a devotion to good food, elegant presentation and a genuine interest in sharing with others. It has gone into reprint many times, but this milestone book, as a first edition, becomes more valuable over time. Obviously there are many folks turned-on by her myriad of books that have been on the market since “Entertaining” was first released. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve showed up at the check-out counter, at some regional second hand shop, with a Martha Stewart cookbook in tow, and been asked by someone else line; ‘Where did you find that book.  I’ve been looking everywhere for that one. You’re lucky. Say, you don’t want to sell it, do you?” I might agree, at this point, to sell one from our home collection, if it’s the lesser of the two in terms of condition. My mission is to have a pristine copy of each of her books, and a signed “Entertaining,” which I’m presently in hot pursuit of one on the market. The others I will sell off eventually through our on-line old book enterprise. Or in Suzanne's new "Cookery Nookery," located in our Gravenhurst antique shop, on Muskoka Road, opposite the Opera House.

    As I have made a sweeping editorial move, to promote handwritten recipes as paper heritage / heirlooms, suddenly there is an extreme shortage of material out on the hustings. While I’m not so vain as to believe it was my writing prowess and popularity that did this, I do believe that many shopkeeps, of businesses I check frequently, have probably re-considered how they sell-off these usual bundles of recipes, pulled from old cookbooks and auction job-lots of vintage paper. I’ve educated more than a few of these folks, in other collectible areas, and it should have been obvious to me, when I wrote the blog-site and published the short series of articles, that I would suffer some after-shock. Particularly the increase in prices for such random bundles, that used to cost well under ten dollars for several hundred, to twenty and thirty dollars for about fifty beaten-up pieces of paper now. Some are even framing them as I suggested. While I’m always chagrined by these turns of capitalism, I’m delighted by the fact more and more people, are conserving this historic paper that might have been discarded. The fact I’ve interested some folks to take better care of these handwritten gems, does make me feel better, even though I’ve had this hiatus thrown my way.

    In the off season, when highway travel is often precarious, here in the snowbelt, Suzanne and I huddle about the kitchen, where something, is always in some state of creation; and it is all very intoxicating to a man supposedly on a life-preserving diet. Suzanne has none the less, been whipping up some wonderful, low calorie meals and desserts, and I really haven’t suffered much at all, over the past two months of caloric reduction. And she very much relies on her grandmother’s handwritten recipe collection to get us from here to there, and for me, a lesser belt-size. Good old hardy food didn’t have to be crazy with calories. Suzanne has stuck with Canada’s Food Guide nutrition information for years. The only reason I have gained weight, is our weekly treat of going out to dinner. Treating myself got me to the point of being fifty pounds over my ideal weight. Suzanne’s kitchen moxie has brought me down twenty of those excess pounds in less than two months. I’ve been re-introduced to spinach which I gave up when my mother stopped lecturing me about “Popeye.” “If it’s good enough to help Popeye fight the bad guys, it’s good enough for you to get good marks at school." I never understood the parallel between fighting bad guys and getting good marks, but then my mother didn't feel it was necessary to offer sidebars to her advisories.

     Please join me in the next blog, for more cookbook collecting stories, from my travels about this beautiful region of Ontario.