An introduction to the Book of Puddings

This is the first book I am working on for my MA major project, the second being Mrs E. Nevill Jackson’s Scrapbook from the Museum of Childhood. This one is a recipe from an individual rather than a Museum, and is absolutely wonderful to work on.

My client, whose book this is, receieved this book as an heirloom. It was put together by her great aunt, Kathleen A. Christmas, and is a collection of receipes and household tips from during the war.

I thought I would post some updates of the work that I am doing on the book, as well as try out some of the recipes – some of them are quite interesting, like how to make omelettes with powdered eggs! – They are all wartime recipes, based on rations of food at the time, and are quite fabulous!

The book when first received – with heavily damaged sewing, and a lot of additional material within, forcing the book apart
The damaged sewing – sewn on two parchment tapes
The additional material, sticking out of the book along with the loose pages
The cover of the book is a green leather sheep skiver, marked in a straight morocco grain
One particularly fascinating and stained page!
A close up of one of the recipes, I plan on trying out

 

A visit to the Museum of Childhood

I’ve just spent a fabulous morning at the Museum of Childhood having a look for books for my MA project, thanks to Catherine at the museum and Jane at the V&A, I am hopefully going to be taking a book from this museum and working on it under Jane’s supervision at the V&A – very exciting!! Pictures of the chosen book will hopefully come soon!

In the meantime, I did have a peruse of the shelves in the museum itself and felt like I had stepped back in time and onto the playground at my primary school! So here are some pics if you remember any of them!