1785 Rare Book - Rider’s British Merlin for the Year of Our Lord God 1785
An exceptionally attractive late-eighteenth-century English almanac volume, bringing together three substantial 1785 annual reference works in a handsome contemporary red morocco binding richly decorated in gilt.
Author: Cardanus Rider, with the annual Royal Kalendar and its Companion.
Title: Rider’s British Merlin for the Year of Our Lord God 1785; together with The Royal Kalendar for 1785 and A Companion to the Royal Kalendar for the Year 1785.
Publisher: London: Rider’s British Merlin printed for the Company of Stationers and sold by J. Wilkie, 1785; the Companion printed for J. Debrett, G. Robinson, and T. Cadell, 1785.
Edition: 1785 editions. The Companion to the Royal Kalendar is stated to be the Thirty-Eighth Edition, Carefully Corrected.
Language: Text in English.
Pages: Three works bound as one: 60 pages; vi, [1], 1–281 pages; 170 pages + [2] pages of advertisements.
Size: 5.5" x 3".
Binding: Very good contemporary full red morocco binding, richly gilt. Boards framed with an elegant gilt floral and ribbon roll; spine with raised bands and elaborate gilt floral tooling, with the date “1785” prominently gilt in one compartment. Marbled endpapers and all edges gilt. Light rubbing, scuffing and expected wear to extremities, with the binding remaining remarkably attractive and sound for its age, as shown. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content, complete and firmly bound, with expected age toning and occasional spotting, minor marks and early annotations or ownership marks as shown. An unusually substantial survival of three ephemeral eighteenth-century annual publications preserved together in their contemporary binding.
Illustrations: Printed throughout with calendars, astronomical tables, typographical ornaments, parliamentary and governmental lists, statistical tables and other practical reference material. Rider’s title page and calendar headings are attractively printed in red and black.
Estimate: $500–750 USD.
The book:
This fascinating volume preserves three complementary annual publications for 1785. Rider’s British Merlin was one of Britain’s most enduring and successful almanacs, combining the calendar with astronomical information, weather predictions, feast days, gardening and husbandry advice, fairs, roads and a wide range of practical information intended for everyday use. First appearing in the seventeenth century, the series continued well into the nineteenth.
The accompanying Royal Kalendar and Companion to the Royal Kalendar transform the volume into an extraordinarily detailed snapshot of British public life in 1785. Among their contents are extensive lists of members of Parliament, government officers, public institutions and administrative appointments, together with records of political changes since the accession of George III. The survival of all three works together in such an appealing contemporary gilt morocco binding makes this a particularly evocative piece of Georgian social and political history.
The author:
Cardanus Rider was the traditional authorial name associated with the long-running British Merlin almanac. Issued annually for generations, the publication became a familiar household reference, blending practical information with astronomy, calendars, agriculture and the miscellaneous knowledge expected of the traditional British almanac.
More broadly, this volume belongs to the flourishing eighteenth-century culture of annual calendars and directories, publications that were intended for constant consultation and were therefore often heavily used and discarded. Surviving examples, particularly substantial compilations preserved in fine contemporary bindings such as this one, offer an unusually immediate glimpse into the everyday informational world of Georgian Britain.