Engraved miniature calendar for 1784

[Paris: Boulanger?, 1783. Oblong miniature (70 x 36 mm., binding 74 x 39 mm). 13 leaves, entirely engraved, printed on sheets that were cut up, the resulting strips skillfully glued to each other, opening longitudinally to form 12 page openings, one for each month. At the head of each month is an etched vignette. First leaf attached directly to the binding, last leaf adhered to a flyleaf, with second flyleaf pasted to back board. 19th-century metallic case binding, hinged spine, covers overlaid with mother-of-pearl, painted and lacquered with floral sprays draped over a tree trunk at top and bottom, at centers an inset roundel containing a circle-and-dot patterned foil or metallic inlay, which is bluish-green on the front cover and with a painted and lacquered rose sprig, and bright pink on the back cover and painted with a fox, the roundels each within a differently etched silver-gilt frame (some old soiling to fox roundel), gilt edges; late 18th-century red morocco two-part pull-off case, covers gold-tooled (central motif stamped upside down) and lettered “Bijou de La Reine,” spine gold-tooled and with gilt title “L’Année Heureuse”, the other three edges flat and covered in gold paper to resemble gilt edges, blue silk lining.***

A rare miniature calendar, probably published by Boulanger, an almanac and print publisher who issued other calendars matching this one in size, layout and construction. The adorably detailed etched vignettes of each month (possibly by Queverdo, who worked closely with Boulanger) show various urban or pastoral scenes and personages; most are identified in the captions as representing different nationalities, and one illustrates a scene from Rousseau’s novel: Le Portugais jaloux, L’Espagnole constante, Le Chevalier francais, La nouvelle Heloise, Le moderne Romain, La belle Allemande, Le gaillard Lapon, La Suédoise rusé [sic], Le Sarmante amoureux, La jeune Grec [sic], Le Russe soumis, and L’Anglaise exigeante.  The binding is unusual.

Another copy of this calendar was owned by the collector the Baron du Roure de Paulin, described in his 1911 monograph Quelques reliures d’almanachs (Paris, 1911), p. 26.  I locate no institutional copies; not in Grand-Carteret.