Petit Souvenir. Le Fuel Paris. 1819. [8], engraved title page, 12 printed pages in French, 4 glossy pages for notes in the middle, [6], calendar folded in half, [4]. Calendrier Portatif pour l'Annee Bisextile, 1820. Rue St. Jacques, no. 34, pres celle du foin. 12 printed pages with names of each month below circular vignette engravings depicting rural pastimes eg. dancing, making cider, playing skittles, shooting birds and harvesting wheat. Some mild wrinkling from historic damp. Ivory silk endpapers. All edges gilt. Feint pencil marks on central leaves for note taking. 60 x 95 mm. Contemporary ornate mother-of-pearl and ormolu binding. Scrolling elaborate floral ormolu design over horizontally patterned ground; covers of white metal hand marbled, with chaseded mother-of-pearl oval plaques within very fine ormolu patterned borders and with ornate floral ormolu corner-pieces. Lacking the upper/outer back ormolu corner-piece. Some of the marbling worn in minuscule patches. Lacking the original pencil. French miniature almanac and notebook published by Le Fuel. It is a flamboyantly elaborate binding and was almost certainly retailed in Paris at the Palais-Royal, beautifully crafted in Mother-of-Pearl & ormolu gilt bronze, with "Souvenir" engraved on front panel. Lined with cream silk endpapers and dated 1820 - the year Louis XVIII was King of France, Napoleon Bonaparte was in exile on St. Helena, and there was a plot to overthrow the Bourbon monarchy. I recently sold a similar miniature book that was originally bought by a Lady-in-waiting to Caroline of Brunswick, Princess of Wales – expensive and luxurious gems of bookseven two hundred years ago. Not in Bondy, nor Grand-Carteret, nor, Spielmann. Welsh, 5625. WorldCat locates zero copies worldwide. 12 firsts2024