Isabella Beeton

These wonderful illustrations are from ‘Mrs Beeton’s Book for Household Management’ which was published around 1861. We, at Mimi Berlin, are always in awe of what people used to call salads. Look at these colorful sombrero-like dishes below, aren’t they just great?! How much fun are they compared to the salads we serve today? Right, SO much more fun!

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Book of Household Management

“Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management was a guide to all aspects of running a household in Victorian Britain, edited by Isabella Beeton. It was originally titled Beeton’s Book of Household Management, in line with the other guide-books published by Beeton. It was first published as a book in 1861 by S. O. Beeton Publishing, 161 Bouverie Street, London, a firm founded by her husband, Samuel Beeton.”

Home Life and Comfort

“Isabella, was 21 years old when she started working on the book, and she died at 28. The first publication was in 1859 in the form of 24 monthly installments. On December 25, 1861, the monthly installments were combined into book form and called The Book of Household Management, and was used as a guide for all Things Connected with Home Life and Comfort.”

The Grandmother of Modern Domestic Goddesses

“It was an immediate best-seller, selling 60,000 copies in its first year and totaling nearly two million copies by 1868. Beeton has been described as ‘the grandmother of modern domestic goddesses’ and to this day her name still has iconic status in Britain: most people recognize it and know its connotations, although relatively few have actually come into contact with the book itself.”

images/via viintage.com