Etrennes mignonnes Curieuses et utiles Augmentées pour l’Année 1743. Paris: de la boutique de M. Jouenne chez Durand rue S. Jacques à S. Landry et au Grison, [1742/43].
32mo (binding size 99 x 57 mm). [64] pp. Engraved frontispiece, additional engraved title, double-page engraved map of France at end. Contemporary emblematic binding of gold-blocked brown goatskin, both covers with a panel stamp incorporating at center a scythe and hourglass, framed in curving lines, drawer-handle ornaments, leaf plants, monkeys, flitting birds, garlands, and sprigs; pink satin liners, gilt edges (small chip to head of spine, corners scuffed). Provenance: later 18th-century marginal note “Ma naissance” next to the date 12 August on calendar page for August; late 18th-century inscription at front identifying the note as that of the writer’s mother, born 12 August 1743, and stating that she kept this little book her entire life.
A long-running Paris almanac, in a contemporary binding with a pleasingly asymmetrical rococo decor, mixing chinoiserie elements (monkeys) and Western memento mori motifs.
The Etrennes mignonnes were published, with changing subtitles, from 1716 to ca. 1845. The engraved title and frontispiece varied from year to year (up to 1750, after which none were used), and the map alternated between an ecclesiastical, civil, or military map of France, or a map of the Paris region. This issue has a special frontispiece showing the audience given by the King to the Ottoman Emperor in January 1742. Grand-Carteret 107; cf. Cohen-de Ricci 51.
Price: $1,250.00