Souvenir, [French Almanac/Diary] 1853. Chez l'Editeur [Not known]. Paris. [1852].

40 pages, blank for notes apart from engraved title-page that has beautiful vignette of three women in 'Eastern' dress in front of palm trees and flowers. Blank folded card in the centre engraved with the seven days of the week. Folding engraved calendar for 1853 tipped in at the end. All parts loosely inserted within watered fuschia silk moiré folded cover. Watered fuschia silk moiré endpapers and expandable front pocket. All edges gilt. 62 x 93 mm.  Original Mother-of-Pearl binding with pink velvet spine and with relief carved mother-of-pearl oblong plaque on front cover - depicting a young man in breeches on his knee in front of a young woman, offering up the contents of a shallow bowl, in a rural setting with a turreted house, mountains, trees, bushes, and a fence in the background. The binding is kept closed with the original carved ivory topped, slim, leaded pencil that slides down into loops alternating between the covers. It is a flamboyantly elaborate binding and was almost certainly retailed in Paris at the Palais-Royal, beautifully crafted in Mother-of-Pearl front panel. A similar item had a retailer's stamp for no. 92, rue de Richelieu, près le Boulevart, ci-dev. Palais Royal, Dépôt de G. Palmer, Paris.

Lined with fuschia watered silk moire endpapers and dated 1835. 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 books even two hundred years ago. Not in Bondy, nor Grand-Carteret, nor, Spielmann, nor Welsh. WorldCat locates zero copies worldwide.