Trying to date Old recipe book

cgvl, Mar 9, 9:44pm
I recently purchased an old book full of recipes. Outside says cooking with Mary Ann. price 2' 6d. Apparently the recipes are a compilation of ones previously printed in the Auckland Star and Christchurch Sun. Nowhere does it give a date for printing and obviously its prior to 1966.
Can anyone help with what might be an approx date TIA.

pickles7, Mar 9, 11:51pm
I found the descendants of an old recipe book I found, isn't that cool.

pickles7, Mar 10, 12:10am
From reading the little notes in amongst the recipe's, and as we now live in the area it was relatively easy. Gisborne to Waipukurau expeditions kept coming up. The best bit is the descendant I found is a retired baker. A great lot of local history, throughout the book.

elliehen, Mar 10, 12:46am
Have a look in the photo gallery on this website.You might see it there, or at least get an indication of which decade it belongs to.

http://nzfoodhistory.macmate.me/NZ_Food_History/Home.html

lynja, Mar 10, 7:26am
I love collecting old cookbooks but do find it interesting and frustrating that most do not have a publication date in them.

elliehen, Mar 10, 7:41am
I have a collection and can often date them approximately by historical events.Some of the things you can look for are:

+ the number of digits in a phone number
+ imperial measurements as opposed to metric
+ the advertisements for local businesses that no longer exist
+ products advertised that are no longer available
+ contributors names (pre-1950 women contributors usually described themselves asMrs Henry Miller etc)
+ the name of the printer - often on the back endpaper in tiny print.many cookery books had compilers and printers rather than publishers and you can find out when a particular printer was in business

It takes a little thought and research, but it's lots of fun.