CALENDRIER POUR CETTE ANNEE

Paris: Louis Janet, [ca. 1820s]. (Necessaire): 120 x 70 mm (4 3/4 x 2 3/4"). Calendar: [6] leaves; notebook: [4] leaves.
Red straight-grain morocco, lined with green satin, containing a calendar in paper wrappers and notebook bound in matching pale green satin. Exterior decorative panel with central painted porcelain scene surrounded by wire filigree and pearls, under a glass window. In a later red morocco case by Riviere & Son (stamp-signed), double ruled in gilt, raised bands, gilt-ruled compartments. Each calendar page with an engraved vignette. The necessaire additionally containing a pair of scissors with a delicately carved mother-of-pearl handle, a silver mechanical pencil, a small wooden pencil, and an awl (a tipped-in early 20th century auction listing not mentioning the latter two, suggesting they are possible later additions). The notebook with the engraved bookplate of Sir David Lionel Goldsmid-Stern-Salomons, dated 1908, to the front pastedown. Calendar leaves loose, with fore-edges slightly creased, other trivial defects, but the leaves and binding fresh and quite clean. Nécessaire lightly worn from use, with very short split to one tab closure; decorative panel with faint horizontal hairline crack (visible only under magnification), scattered losses to the paint on the porcelain panel, but the fragile object surprisingly well preserved, with all its components present.

This charming calendar, in a period nécessaire (a small case for toiletries or, as here, personal implements), provides a window into the life of a young woman during France’s Bourbon Restoration; wonderfully preserved (in a custom Riviere box), it was later in an important British collection. Small calendars and almanacs were popular New Years gifts for young French women starting in the late 18th century, and by the second decade of the 19th century--when this calendar was likely produced--a thriving industry had grown up around their production. Louis Janet (1788-1840), who was in business as a bookseller and binder from 1810 through 1838, made much of his business in these small almanacs and keepsake books. In our charming almanac, each month has an attractive engraving of a Neoclassical scene, with graceful women in flowing drapery, often accompanied by flitting putti. The nécessaire is similarly decorated: the central panel depicts a young female in a flowing gown leaning over a plinth inscribed with the text: "l’amilie me suffit" ("friendship is enough for me"). These attractive illustrations, together with the contents of the nécessaire, suggest its owner was a fashionable young woman. This delightful object is from the collection of David Lionel Salomons (1851-1925), whose books were chosen with notable discrimination, the goal always being to obtain copies in very fine condition. The collection was particularly strong in 18th and 19th century illustrated books and attractive bindings. It is very likely, given the dates of his collection, that he was the owner who commissioned the pleasing Riviere & Son box in which the nécessaire currently resides..