Description

Various authors; Joseph Franz KAISER (1786 – 1859), Editor

Nützlicher Geschäfts-Kalender oder Calendarisches Tagebuch für das Jahr 1835 [Title on the Cover]

[Useful Business Calendar or Calendarial Diary for 1835]

Kleiner allgemeiner National-Kalender für alle Religions-Gesellschaften des österreichischen Kaiserstaates auf das Gemein-Jahr 1835 [Title on the Title Page]

[Small General National Calendar for all the Religious Societies of the Austrian Imperial State for the Year 1835]

Graz: J. F. Kaiser [1834]

Large 8º, 15 pp. with title page and calendar printed in red and black, [5 pp.], 17-40 pp., 1-44 pp., original blue illustrated wrappers, tax stamp on the title page (minor foxing, binding with light shelf wear, and light stains, but overall in good condition).

An exceedingly rare calendar for the year 1835 includes articles and charts aimed at business people. It features an extensive discussion on potato cultivation and its benefits. Although the potato was known, large-scale cultivation and the versatility of the plant for various products were still not widely recognized at the time. The cover of the publication depicts three men roasting potatoes, while two putti are watering the earth beneath them.

Other articles about agriculture discuss the Russian method of beekeeping, as well as the cultivation of melons, roses, hyacinths, amaryllis, and crown or thorns pumpkin.

Joseph Franz Kaiser (1786 – 1859) was a highly industrious and innovative publisher known for producing books, maps, and even a printed globe. In this publication, he combined various leftover materials from older works with new additions, resulting in irregular pagination. It seems that Kaiser printed the new pages of the calendar while recycling much of the text, including an article on potatoes from two of his publications from the previous year: The Large Styrian National Calendar and The Small Styrian National Calendar, both from 1834. Additionally, the images on the wrappers were reused from the Large Calendar but featured a different title. Curiously, the cover and the title page display different titles.

The publication is very rare and we could not find any institutional examples, not even in the Austrian National Library.