[Fore edge painting] Collection of 12 almanacs

all London, printed for the Company of Stationers, 1771, all printed in red and black, various woodcuts in the text, bound together in gilt red morocco dated 1771 on spine and with gilt and crowned owner's initial P on the front cover, gilt edges with fore-edge painting (see below).

With renewed corners and spine (old backstrip affixed); endpapers and first blank (with crowned stamp with monogram "D.M.G.") loose. A few tax stamps. Extraordinary copy for several reasons: presumably from the library of Bentinck, Duke of Portland, the crowned "P" on the front cover matches those on other books found from his library. The fore-edge painting depicts the facade of Buckingham Palace. Contains: 1. Remarkable News from the Stars: or, an Ephemeris for 1771; 2. The Gentleman's Diary, or the Mathematical Repository (...); 3. The Ladies' Diary: or Women's Almanack (...); 4. Vox Stellarum: or, a Loyal Alamanack for the Year of the Human Redemption 1771; 5. Merlinus Liberatus. Being an Almanack for the Year of our Redemption, 1771; 6. Parker's Ephemeris for the Year of Our Lord 1771; 7. The Coelestial Diary: or, an Ephemeris for (...) 1771; 8. Poor Robin 1771. An Almanack after the Old; 9. The English Apollo: or, Useful Companion; 10. Speculum Anni: or, Season on the Season's; 11. [Greek script: ] 'Olympia Domata' or, an Almanack for (...) 1771; 12. (...) The Coelestial Atlas; Or a New Ephemeris for (...) 1771.