London Almanac for the Year of Christ 1870. Company of Stationers. [London]. [1869].

24 unnumbered leaves. Folding frontispiece view of Metropolitan Meat market. No red duty stamp, since the duty had been revoked by this time. Usual contents include table of King's & Queen's reigns, Lord Mayors & Sheriffs, holidays, gold & silver coins.      Contemporary sapphire and gilt decorated endpapers. All edges gilt. 40 x 62 mm. Contemporary navy blue plush velvet binding, with brass edges and ornamental central brass plaque. Matching silk covered endpapers. Three silk cylindrical catches to keep the book closed, complete with an early brass propelling pencil with blank heraldic shield at its top, used to shut the volume tight. An unusual London Almanac binding. Bromer and Edison, 107, describe a very similar binding as "stunning". Bondy, 164. Not in Spielmann nor Welsh. WorldCat locates no copies worldwide. Metropolitan Meat market was the historical name for the Smithfield Market in London, officially known as London Central Markets. Established in the 1860s, it was a wholesale market for meat and poultry that replaced the older, more chaotic Smithfield market and a previous cattle market that moved to Islington. Designed by Sir Horace Jones, the market's buildings were completed in 1868 and remain a central hub for the meat trade today.  A similar edition is in the Queen Mary's Dolls' House in Windsor Castle.