THE QUEENS CLOSET OPENED. Incomparable secrets in physick, chirurgery, preserving, candying, and cookery as they were presented to the Queen.

[London], Printed for Nathaniel Brook at the Angel in Cornhill, 1655.. TITLE CONTINUED: By the most experienced persons of our times, many whereof they were honoured with her own practice, when she pleased to descend to these more private recreations. Never before published. Transcribed from the true copies of her Majesties own receipt books, by W. M. one of her late servants. FIRST EDITION IN 3 PARTS, ALL 3 TITLE PAGES DATED 1655: THE QUEENS CABINET OPENED, THE PEARL of PRACTISE, A QUEENS DELIGHT and THE COMPLEAT COOK. Small book, 12mo, approximately 145 x 80 mm, 5¾ x 3 inches, engraved frontispiece portrait of Henrietta Maria signed W Faithorne and laid down on paper, pages: The Queens Cabinet Opened and Queens Delight, [12] including frontispiece, 1-192, [2] title page to Queens Delight, 195-296 followed by [4] - blank pages, [22] - index followed by advert leaf; misnumbering to a few pages of Queens Delight affecting first number of 8 pages, nothing missing; THE COMPLEAT COOK, title page, 3-123, [7] - table, some misnumbering but collated and complete, contemporary calf covers with amateur reback in unmatching poor quality leather, pastedown and endpapers replaced. Spine worn, rubbed and with a vertical crease, crack between the title page and portrait (see attached image), pale age-browning and 2 small ink spots to portrait, title page slightly dusty, bottom corner of page 291 has a small tear with loss of 2 words now written in the lower margin in ink (see image), tips of 2 corners and 1 top margin neatly repaired, neat ink remedy for pain in the head in 5 lines on first blank after page 296, first inner joint strengthened with narrow strip of old paper, pale age-browning to text, occasional pale stain and turning crease. Still a very good tight copy with no loose pages. The Queen's Closet Opened was written by 'W. M.' about whom very little is known. 'The Pearl of Practise' covers medical remedies; 'A Queen's Delight' examines confectionery; and 'The Compleat Cook' looks at general culinary recipes. The book was published during the reign of Oliver Cromwell. Books such as these appeared to be opening doors on to the secrets of the wealthy. On the title page to The Queen's Closet, W. M. explains that the book's recipes originate in the kitchen of Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I. They are, he writes, 'incomparable Secrets in Physick, Chirurgery, Preserving and Candying, &c. Which were presented unto the Queen By the most Experienced Persons of the Times" British Library. King Charles had been dead for six years, England was being ruled as a Commonwealth under Cromwell and the widowed Henrietta Maria was living in exile in France. During the 24 years of her marriage Henrietta Maria was never popular with the English. She was too Catholic and believed to exert too much power over her husband. The Queen's Closet would help to recast her image. Written by W. M., known to contemporaries as Henrietta Maria's personal secretary Walter Montague, The Queen's Closet was part of a new trend for domestic cookery books. See: Arnold W. Oxford, English Cookery Books to the Year 1850, pages 26-27; George Thomason, Catalogue of the Pamphlets, Books etc., Relating to the Civil War, Volume 2, page 129, Sept. 29. No. E.1519; Andre L. Simon, Bibliotheca Gastronomica, page 118, No. 1239; William R. Cagle, A Matter of Taste, page 601-603, No. 838; Katherine Bitting, Gastronomic Bibliography, page 595; John Ferguson, Histories and Books of Secrets, Sixth Supplement, pages 34-38, on page 37 are 2 columns of text comparisons, page10, last lines have "so much" in our copy, instead of "asmuch" in the 2 editions listed; W. Carew Hazlitt, Hand-Book to Early English Literature, Volume 1, page 121, No. 14, listing the first book 1655 and the last 2 books with the date 1654; ESTC R208567. The copy listed in ESTC lacks final part. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.