ROYAL ALMANAC, year MDCCXLIII. Paris, Veuve d’Houry, 1743. I - Lot 73

ROYAL ALMANAC, year MDCCXLIII. Paris, Veuve d’Houry, 1743. In-8, contemporary red morocco binding, covers adorned with a repeating pattern of green morocco lozenges bearing a gilt lion in their centers; the lozenges are bordered by two fillets and separated by gilt discs, coat of arms in the center of the covers, ribbed spine decorated in the same manner, gilt edges, slipcase. A very beautiful binding adorned with an elaborate repeating mosaic design featuring the Bournonville coat of arms. This is one of ten known almanac bindings from this provenance, all but one (the 1738 volume) adorned with a compartmentalized design. Eight of them are held at the Municipal Library of Dijon; two others, including this one, were part of Major Abbey’s collection. “The series of almanacs bound with the Bournonville coat of arms held at the Dijon Library (years 1731, 1732, 1733, 1734, 1735, 1738, 1739, 1746) and in Major Abbey’s collection (1737 and 1743) constitutes the only known series of compartment-bound almanacs. The coat of arms (a crowned lion) would be suitable for several other ducal families (Saulx-Tavannes and Luynes in particular; they could only be identified thanks to the 1731 and 1746 almanacs, which bear the combined coats of arms of Bournonville and Duras” (Michon, *18th-Century Mosaic Bookbindings*, which reproduces five bindings from this collection, plates XVIII through XXII and XLIII). Angélique-Victoire de Bournonville (1686–1764), a descendant of the Luynes family through her mother Charlotte d’Albert de Luynes, married Jean-Baptiste de Durfort, Duke of Duras, in 1706, Marshal of France (1684–1770). While the first eight of these bindings were commissioned from Padeloup, those for the almanacs of 1743 and 1746 appear to have come from another workshop, “perhaps provincial,” referred to by Michon as the “Workshop of the 1746 Almanac.” From the Abbey Library (London, Sotheby’s, 1965, no. 18) with bookplate. Acquired by Émile Rossignol in 1966.

Estimate:$11,189.93

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