Ye Bill of ye Fare.

£1,250 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

An elaborate illustrated manuscript menu for a dinner given in honor of Colonel John Reeve (1822-1897) on New Year’s Eve 1879. The dinner was hosted by Sir Thomas Whichcote 7th Baronet (1813-1892) and his wife Isabella Elizabeth Whichcote (nee Montgomery) at Aswarby House (near Sleaford, Lincolnshire). The menu was designed and illustrated by the 22 year old Isabella Cecil (nee Whichcote, 1857-1917), she names herself “Baronesse Isabella Burghley” on the title-page - daughter of Sir Thomas - and the wife of the 4th Marquees of Exeter, Brownlow Cecil (they married in September 1875). Isabella was assisted in the production of the menu by her young “couzen Mistress Ethel Montgomirie”. After the elaborate title-page the menu begins with a limerick on the name “Reeve” accompanied by a large illustration of two reeve birds by Isabella Burghley. The second page has a dedication to Colonel Reeve - “admired on account of great valour and skill as a brave hunter of ye wilde beaste ye foxe as also a renown’d marksman…”. The dedication is illustrated with fox and rabbit hunting equipment. The next page has an illustration of Aswarby House and an “explanation” of the feast which is to be “after ye mannere of ye Russian people”. This page is illustrated with a rabbit pie, a rib of beef, a pineapple, bread, wine cups and a large bottle of wine. The menu begins with a “soupe made from ye contents of ye mightie kytchen stock pot wyth lyttle crustardes floating therein” followed by whiting, “

• Year: 1879

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