The Savoy Cocktail Book with a Harry Craddock Autograph Postcard.

CRADDOCK, Harry.

Item Number: 107229

London: Constable & Company, 1930.

First edition of this iconic, definitive text on cocktails. Octavo, original half black cloth, pictorial endpapers. Illustrations by Gilbert Rumbold. With an autograph postcard featuring a photographic portrait of Craddock from The Dorchester signed by him and entirely in his hand laid in which reads, “Sir, I have moved over to Park Lane and you will find me here at the Dorchester every day at the new bar. I hope to have the honour and pleasure of mixing and serving for you here, Sir. Yours obediently Harry Craddock P.S. Every day.” In near fine condition. Rare and desirable with such a lengthy note signed by Craddock.

Savoy Cocktail Book features 750 of Harry Craddock’s most popular recipes. It is a fascinating record of the cocktails that set London alight at the time—and which are just as popular today. From Slings to Smashes, Fizzes to Flips, and featuring art deco illustrations, Harry Craddock was "the king of cocktail shakers," and The Savoy Cocktail Books contains humorous anecdotes on the origin of the cocktail and its purpose ("for the solace of man"), as well as "an elucidation of the Manners and Customs of people of quality in a period of some equality." "Behind every great bartender (literally) is a roughed-up, stained copy of The Savoy Cocktail Book...it's been an industry must-have since its first edition" (GQ).