Aunt Matilda's Selected Receipts and Useful Information

Philadelphia, Penn: I. L. Cragin & Co, 1890. Cord-bound booklet, stapled in wrappers (11.5 x 7.8 cm.), 31, [1] pages. FIRST EDITION. A promotional cookbook for Dobbins' electric soap, manufactured by I.L. Cragin & Co. The recipes alternate with testimonials for the laundry soap. The company used 'electric' in the title in order to capitalize on people's fascination with electricity at that time. The soap itself was formulated with a very alkaline base, which actually gave it a bit of a 'sting' which reminded people even more of electricity. This booklet starts off with several pages of advertisement for Dobbins Electric Soap, emphasizing how the soap is so strong, one doesn't need to be rough with one's clothes to clean them. The booklet spends the rest of its pages alternating between Aunt Matilda's recipes and testimonials from customers who have used the soap. Some of the recipes included are: Pea Soup, Pepperpot, Broiled Salmon, Roast Duck, Chicken Croquettes, Lobster Salad, and Lemon Pie. It is unclear if the title of the booklet was meant as a play on words or a spelling mistake, after all it is full of recipes and 'receipts' from Dobbins' Electric Soap's customers in the form of testimonials. On the inside front cover, I. L. Cragin states if you buy fifteen bars of their soap, and mail in the wrappers as proof, they will send you a dollars worth of "first class sheet music for free!"

Also there is an advertisement for S. E. Brackett, a grocery and general store in Leeds Junction, ME, that states if you buy 7 bars of soap from them you can get seven "beautiful Shakespeare cards".
Fine, in publisher's black-titled salmon colored wrappers. [OCLC locates ten copies].