[ALMANAC]. The Polite Repository, or Pocket Companion: Containing an Almanack, the Births, Marriages, &c of the Sovereign Princes of Europe, Lists of both Houses of Parliament, Officers of State, Navy and Army, the Baronets of England, and Various other Articles of Useful Information: Ornamented with Elegant Engravings and Ruled for Occurrences &c.&c. To be continued annually. London: Printed [by T. Rickaby] for W. Peacock, Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, and sold by all Booksellers, Stationers, &c. MDCCLXXXVII. [1787].
Leather-bound with slipcase. Miniature (118 x 80 x 10 mm.), pp. 88. Contemporary red morocco gilt, smooth spine with flower and volute roll; covers with onlays of blue and cream morocco forming an attractive gilt geometrical pattern; elaborate gilt borders of tooth, dotted and foliate rolls; gilt tooled overall with leaf and flower sprays, tools and stars; contained in matching slipcase. All page edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Initial and terminal blanks present. Engraved title-page and frontispiece, and an engraved diary section (pp. [9]- [36]) with 12 engraved head-pieces of country-houses for each month by John Peltro after Laport. Printer from colophon. Red duty stamp to bottom corner of p.6. Condition: Binding tight and secure, the covers beautifully preserved remaining bright, clean and unrubbed. Lacking one leaf - the Table of Contents at A² - otherwise complete. A little browning to title but largely very clean and tidy throughout; the diary section mostly unused, however there are some old penciled notes which have been rubbed out, and one engraving has been neatly hand-coloured. Couple of neatly inked numbers to endpapers. Without the original pencil.
Notes: A very rare ‘almanac-cum-diary distinguished by its elegance and miniature scenic engravings’ (Temple), Peacock’s Polite Repository first appeared in 1781 and continued for nearly a century. Survival rates for early issues are extremely low – ESTC lists few examples. The present example, is in the Polite Repository’s grandest form of red morocco gilt (- it was also available in glazed paper wrappers in a card slipcase).
