Port a signed association copy Geoffrey Tait first edition 11936

TAIT, Geoffrey M. Port: From the Vine to the Glass. With a foreword by Ernest H. Cockburn. (a signed association copy)
 
London: Harper & Co., 1936.
 
8vo. xv, 174 pp., with photographic illustrations including vineyard scenes, the Douro valley, and the harvest. Publisher’s red cloth, lettered in gilt; lightly marked, spine a trifle dulled, but internally clean and sound.
 
Presentation copy from the author to Ernest H. Cockburn (1850–1945), head of the renowned Port producer Cockburn’s and chairman of the family firm, who contributes the foreword. Inscribed by Tait on the front endpaper: “Ernest Cockburn with the best wishes, thanks & appreciation of the author of this humble work, Geoffrey M. Tait, 2.9.36”, with an additional note at the head: “Dear Ernest, please accept this copy with my best best wishes, Geoff”. The book also bears Cockburn family bookplate.
 
Cockburn has added his own pencilled underlining and a few corrections to the opening chapters, reflecting a critical reader’s engagement with Tait’s account.
 
Tait, already known for The Practical Handbook on Port Wine, here offered his fullest survey of the Douro vineyards, cultivation, production, and the appreciation of port in Britain. His approachable but authoritative style made the book an important bridge between trade knowledge and the consumer market.
 
Ernest H. Cockburn’s endorsement carried considerable weight: by the 1930s he had become one of the most prominent figures in the Anglo-Portuguese wine trade, guiding the firm of Cockburn’s through interwar fluctuations and playing a stabilising role in the port export markets. His foreword praises the book as “an admirable description … of the greatest service to Port Wine Shippers, Wine Merchants, and Consumers alike.”
 
A fine association copy.