London Almanack for the Year of Christ 1783

Printed for the Company of Stationers, 1783. 64mo, 1 1/4 x 1 3/8 in. (57 x 33 mm), 24pp. Original cream morocco elaborately gilt and with decorative morocco inlays in red, with a woman dancing with a garland; marbled end-papers, a.e.g. Engraved throughout with a 4 page view of 'The Ordnance Office, Old Palace Yard;' tax stamp to title-page; pencil annotations to calendar and small abrasion to the page for October, thread stitching to first spread; housed in matching morocco slipcase, edges bumped and soiled as would be expected in an object of daily use.

[ESTC T127697; Welsh, Bibliography of Miniature Books, 4573]
For each work ESTC records a collation of 26 leaves printed on one side only, but our copy appear to be complete and may represent a variant,
printed on one side only and where leaves are pasted back-to-back to form pages, as in the copy held in the collection of the Morgan Library [PML 251988].

A miniature, well-loved and well-used 18th century almanac.
These ephemeral objects became very popular in the early modern era and have their roots in the Babylonian tablets that laid out what people might expect on any given day of the year. In the pages of almanacs, readers found calendars and counsel—everything from reminders about religious feast days to details of the lunar cycle, and they were used in very large numbers. To distinguish themselves, some readers started demanding very small, curious, and beautifully decorated editions, and these then became showpieces, examples of refined craftsmanship, to be displayed in a refined society to demonstrate the owner's sophistication. Besides the 12 month pages showing moon phases and major holidays and saint days and high tide times at London Bridge, this almanac contains a Table of Kings & Queens Reigns, a list of Lord Mayors and Sheriffs, a List of Holidays, and of Current Coins.

Item number: 428

Price: $800.00

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