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rif. 133200 — France: 18th century. Puffs Powders Patches Bibles Billet-doux A beautifully crafted vanity kit bound to mimic a French Book of Hours. Its elaborately gilt-tooled red morocco casing disguises an ingenious interior of fashionable accoutrements bodkin brush looking glass and miniature essentials writing tools all key elements of the ritualized toilette. Books of Hours - personal prayer books kept by laypersons for private devotion - were frequently the remit of women whether gifted to commissioned by or made for them. The books' content encouraged quiet introspection while their lavish illumination decoration and bindings became an external expression of wealth and status. This palm-sized "Heures Royal" as the spine label reads encourages reflection of a more literal kind. Instead of religious meditations its contents include a set of six vanity tools a removable mirror an ivory writing tablet and a retractable pencil all carefully positioned within a compartmentalized silk- and ribbon-lined interior. "A wealthy woman never left home without her travelling case or nécessaire which held her perfumes and toiletries" Martin p. 18. French vanity boxes ranged from the larger nécessaire de voyage and nécessaire de toilette to "nécessaires de poche which housed one or two important bottles and brushes for emergency application deep in the many pockets of their voluminous gowns" Martin. Even tinier were "much smaller vanity cases called etuis intended to fit into a pocket. another must-have item. These were also used as containers for other items such as sewing kits and writing tools" Stewart. Most of the finest manufacturers and retailers of nécessaires were located near to the Palais Royal in Paris. Cases were available in a wide variety of costly materials and designs often incorporated precious stones. Book-form examples like this are much more unusual. Alexander Pope satirized the toilette in The Rape of the Lock 1712 mocking the frivolous combination of "Puffs Powders Patches Bibles Billet-doux" - a clash of religious and cosmetic devotion neatly encapsulated in this etui case. This item has been registered with the UK government's ivory declaration service. Book-form box sextodecimo 112 x 72 mm. Original red morocco green spine label lettered "Heures Royal" raised bands compartments covers and inner dentelles heavily gilt-tooled with floriate scrollwork and star motifs edges gilt 2 metal catches. Interior lined with green moiré silk and trimmed with yellow ribbon. Interior sections include recesses one holding 12 blank paper slips tied with pink ribbon a hinged panel supporting an ivory aide-memoire leaf on recto and a pull-out mirror on verso and compartments for 6 miniature engraved vanity tools: 2 retractable styluses likely formerly holding a pencil or tooth pick pair of scissors bodkin with ear spoon at end scraper and brush. Externally bright and well preserved small chip at upper outer corner of front cover tiny pinholes at edges near catches; internally sound lining a little frayed implements tarnished mirror desilvered and corroded. A remarkable survival. Morag Martin Selling Beauty: Cosmetics Commerce and French Society 2009; Susan Stewart Common and Uncommon Scents: A Social History of Perfume 2022. hardcover