Unusual Artifacts: A Silver and Ivory Perpetual Calendar, 1700

Perpetual Calendar
Germany, c. 1700
The Victoria & Albert Museum

While seemingly inconvenient these days, in the Eighteenth Century, the notion of a perpetual calendar—in short, one that could manipulated to be used for a succession of years—was a convenient and economical decision.  Such calendars were made from valuable materials and were often given as gifts.  Here’s a great example made in Germany around 1700.

In this example, the calendar is engraved on the silver covers of this notebook. Inside the covers are bound three ivory tablets which would have been covered with thin layers of wax which could be inscribed with a pointed stylus and, then, smoothed out and used again. 

Consider it an Eighteenth Century iPad.