An elaborately bound example of Monsieur Gravelot’s Almanach Iconololgique… for the year 1771 sold for £900 at Toovey’s.
It is illustrated with 12 engraved plates featuring allegorical representations of the months by a well-known French engraver, illustrator and art master, Hubert François Gravelot, but much of its appeal lay in this contemporary binding.
The calf boards are overlaid with red and gilt tooled morocco in which a central watercolour vignette is surrounded by mica covered panels of decorative motifs in red, gilt and silver metallic paper. The moiré silk endpapers incorporate a foil mirror, now somewhat perished. More on this sale next week.
