Is My Le Guide Culinaire a First Edition?

The points of issue

• CENSUS CLAIM CORRECTED. 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.

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.

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: CENSUS CLAIM CORRECTED.

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 — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

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.