Is My Copy of Le Guide Culinaire a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The 1903 first is not "printed for the author" and Émile Colin is not the publisher: the BnF Catalogue général record (FRBNF30405448) gives the imprint as Paris, au bureau de "L'Art culinaire" (Place Saint-Michel), 1903, in the series "Bibliothèque professionnelle," printed by the Imprimerie de Lagny — the Émile Colin / Lagny name that circulates online is the printer, not the publisher
• Points of the first printing: title page dated 1903 with the L'Art culinaire office imprint and the full collaborator list (Philéas Gilbert, E. Fétu, A. Suzanne, B. Reboul, Ch
• Dietrich, A. Caillat), drawings by Victor Morin; collation X + 792 pp., illustrated, roughly 23 cm, with terminal leaves of "renseignements" and a folding plate of the garde-manger
• Dealer records describe copies in publisher's red half-percaline with corners, spine lettered and ruled in gilt; a bookseller's imprint of Dupont et Malgat (1 rue Coquillière, Paris) is recorded on some copies
• No number line or edition statement exists — the 1903 date and the 792-page collation are the discriminators
• Page counts of 822, 824 and 943 circulate online and are wrong for the first: 824 is the digitised image count of the BnF scan

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

The French 1903 original has precedence and is the true first. The first English edition — collected in its own right — is A GUIDE TO MODERN COOKERY, William Heinemann, London, 1907: xiii + 880 pp., an ABRIDGED translation of the 1903 text carrying a glossary, 2,973 numbered recipes and about twenty pages of menus; publisher's forest-green cloth lettered in gilt on spine and front board, photogravure portrait frontispiece with tissue guard, all edges green, marbled endpapers, publisher's advert on the verso of the half-title. First printing May 1907; a second impression followed in December 1907, so a Heinemann copy must be free of a later-impression statement. FIRST-THUS TRAP: the Cracknell & Kaufmann translation (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1979; reissued by Wiley 2011 as Escoffier: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery) is billed as the first complete English rendering but translates the 1921 FOURTH French edition — it is a first thus, not a first of Le Guide Culinaire.P-039943

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue is documented. The reprint traps are the later authorial editions — 2nd 1907, 3rd 1912, 4th 1921 (Flammarion) — each reset and expanded, plus the 1979/2011 Cracknell-Kaufmann English translations and modern print-on-demand volumes marketed as "Edition intégrale et originale 1903," which are facsimile/reset reprints and not the 1903 sheets.P-039944

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Le Guide Culinaire a first edition?

A first edition of Le Guide Culinaire by Auguste Escoffier (Paris: au bureau de "L'Art culinaire") is identified by: The 1903 first is not "printed for the author" and Émile Colin is not the publisher: the BnF Catalogue général record (FRBNF30405448) gives the imprint as Paris, au bureau de "L'Art culinaire" (Place Saint-Michel), 1903, in the series "Bibliothèque professionnelle," printed by the Imprimerie de Lagny — the Émile Colin / Lagny name that circulates online is the printer, not the publisher.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). The French 1903 original has precedence and is the true first.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club issue is documented. The reprint traps are the later authorial editions — 2nd 1907, 3rd 1912, 4th 1921 (Flammarion) — each reset and expanded, plus the 1979/2011 Cracknell-Kaufmann English translations and modern print-on-demand volumes marketed as "Edition intégrale et originale 1903," which are facsimile/reset reprints and not the 1903 sheets.

I have a first edition of Le Guide Culinaire — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and decode the printing with the free First Edition Checker. Clearing out books? I take them as a free donation and make sure collectible copies are identified, not discarded: free pickup in the Albuquerque metro (scheduled by route), the 24/7 drop box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE, or donor-paid mail-in from anywhere in the US. Questions? Call or text 505-250-3804.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.