On 13th October 2022 at Cheffins Fine Art Auctions in Cambridge one auction Lot caught my eye. The Lot consisted of 11 almanacs mainly by Rimmel as well as other items, however one item stood out. I placed what I thought was a reasonable bid hoping to be able to sell the other items to be able to keep the one that I wanted. Unfortunately, it sold for six times the top estimate, so there was something there that both the auctioneer and myself hadn’t seen.

They sent me images of the item and have kindly allowed me to use same, so what was the item? It was an ‘Almanac for 1856 – ‘Presented to the patrons of the Cork Drug Hall by Dyas & Harman’, it was small in size and in the centre was a single Le Blond needle box print ‘Nearly ready for the Bath’. The print was mounted onto a fancy gold printed cover. An interesting use of the needle box print, perhaps other examples have similar upright prints from the same ‘Fancy’ set of prints?

Perhaps more surprising was at the foot of the back of the almanac were the words ‘Le Blond & Co London’ so the whole cover, or possibly the whole almanac was in fact printed by Le Blond.

The Cork Drug Hall was the business address of Dyas & Harman operating at different times from 5 (sometimes at no’s 4 and 4 & 5) Winthrop Street Cork. I have seen them advertising themselves as retailers of Spice, Perfume, Patent Medicine, Oils, Colors (Sic), Varnishes and as a Glass Warehouse, hence perhaps the interesting advertisement in the almanac for ‘The Times Assurance Company London’ for insuring Plate Glass against breakage.

I can find references to them between 1852 and 1879 and they also exhibited at the Great Industrial Exhibition (also known as The Irish Industrial Exhibition) of 1853 – “Dyas & Harman, Cork, Bewley & Evans agents in Dublin” and interestingly at that stage they where exhibiting ‘Dawson’s Rat Poison’ so things had moved upmarket over the next couple of years.

I have limited images and hence limited information, was the gold cover an envelope that contained the almanac as there does appear to be a fold over flap to the back or was the cover part of the actual almanac? I have seen mentioned in advertisements for other dates that they issued ‘perfumed’ almanacs perhaps mimicking the style of Rimmel’s well known versions. Was the fact that Le Blond had produced an almanac for Rimmel in 1853 the reason they received this commission?