In the mid nineteenth-century no handbag was complete without a Schloss Bijou Almanac. Anticipating the portability of kindles and tablets, the almanac was half the size of a postage stamp. One would store their almanac alongside a miniature magnifying glass in a small silk lined case.
The little book would contain ‘many tasteful vignettes’ (characteristic of the different months) and miniature portraits. (Such as the Princess Royal of England or the infant Charles Dickens.)
The almanac was principally put together by female contributors and marketed ‘for the ladies’. But later editions proclaimed to be – ‘suitable for [both the] purse pocket-book or [the] waistcoat pocket’.
