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THE AMERICAN VINE DRESSER'S GUIDE.
(New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1872). 180 x 125 mm. (7 1/8 x 5"). 1 p.l. (title), 123 pp. New and Revised Edition.
Publisher's green buckram, decorative gilt titling on upper cover, smooth spine with "40" written faintly at head. Engraved frontispiece portrait of author. With reproduction of title page from the original 1827 edition. Parallel English and French text printed on facing pages. Gabler G28040. See: Pinney, "A History of Wine in America, " pp. 188-89. ◆Corners and spine ends a little rubbed, a hint of soiling to the cloth, edges of leaves with a touch of browning, but an excellent copy, clean and fresh internally, in a sound binding.
First published in 1827, this little guide memorializes one man's ambitious but ill-fated attempt to introduce French vines and growing methods on New York soil. A French transplant himself, our author, Alphonse Loubat (1799-1866), went all-in on the enterprise, planting a vineyard of 40 acres along the Brooklyn waterfront, where, according to Pinney, "the idea of any growing crop is impossible to conceive . . . . At the time that he published his Guide, Loubat seems to have had no suspicion at all that his vinifera were doomed, or that the failure of winegrowing in the United States was owing to anything but the inexplicable neglect of a splendid opportunity. The instruction conveyed in his Guide is without any reference to American conditions, and assumes that French practices can be taken over unaltered. He soon had reason to think otherwise, and in 1835 the enterprise that he strove to establish along the banks of the East River came to a rude end when the vineyard property was sold for building lots." (ST15736j)
Price: $125.00