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The Larder Index

a monograph in one column

The Larder Index

An independent monograph of the world's food shelves: how countries, federations and product trades were once mapped, drawn from the old World-of-Food directory.

rootthe federations branchthe countries leafthe trades
  • 15plates
  • 5Section
  • Updated

the latest plates

8 / 15
A reading desk in a dark archive room, an open ledger, a green-shaded lamp lit, and a single index card laid flat for study.

plate IIIThe Pantry

Reading the Index Today

Reads how to use the index's surviving record and its living institutions now.

Two pairs of hands at a dark wooden desk, one holding an index card, the other a brass paperknife, a shaded lamp between them.

plate IIThe Pantry

The Keepers of the Index

Reads the partnership that kept the directory: a consumer explainer and a science federation.

A single shelf of cloth-bound volumes with plain unmarked spines in a dark pantry room, one volume pulled out and resting open.

plate IIIThe Journals

The Reading Shelf

Reads the journals page and what the keeping desk considered worth reading.

A wall of small unlabelled wooden drawers in a dark pantry, one drawer half open, photographed in low warm light.

plate IIIThe Countries

The Atlas of Nations

Reads how the index arranged the world nation by nation, and what a country page held.

A dark wooden shelf holding a French desk directory, a linen-bound register, and a small brass letter scale, photographed at dusk.

plate IIThe Countries

The French Shelf

Reads the French country page as a portrait of how France organised food knowledge.

A narrow Dutch canal-house office at nightfall, a desk with a card index, a PO box key, and a window over dark water.

plate IThe Countries

The Dutch Desk

Reads why a world food index was natural to keep from the Netherlands.

Forty small plain spice tins on a dark pantry shelf, unmarked, the last tin catching a thin line of light.

plate IIIThe Trades

Forty Shelves of Trade

Reads the product-group axis of the index and how a trade page was stocked.

A wall of small blank brass plaques on a dark corridor wall, photographed in raking light.

plate IIIThe Federations

The Federation Layer

Reads the international-organisations page, the index's uppermost shelf.

The five shelves

  1. shelf oneThe CountriesThe directory shelved the world nation by nation: consumer bodies, schools, ministries.
  2. shelf twoThe TradesForty product groups, from additives to wine: the federations and sources of each shelf.
  3. shelf threeThe FederationsThe international bodies that held the food web together: EFFoST, IUFoST, Codex.
  4. shelf fourThe JournalsThe periodicals the index kept on its reading shelf.
  5. shelf fiveThe PantryLoose notes from the ledger: how the index was kept, and what remains.

From other pantries

Shelves kept by other desks, each read before it was entered here.