Details
The Golden Cabinet: Being the Laboratory, or Handmaid to the Arts. Philadelphia: William Spotswood, 1793.

First American edition, unrecorded at auction. This guide to the practical arts, likely reprinted from an English original, offers instructions for gilding, lacquering, drawing, hair- and skincare, and even making artificial wine and counterfeit gems. Handbooks like these descend from Renaissance books of secrets, which taught readers alchemical recipes for medicines, art materials, and sometimes even more exotic products. Evans 25551.

Octavo (158 x 91mm). 3 title and part pages. Contemporary sheep (rebacked). Provenance: Ward and John Marston (inscriptions).
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