Livre de Compte de Mademoiselle Alexandrine Lambert [compiled in part by her brother Auguste Lambert], Commencé le 1e Novembre 1828 by ACCOUNT BOOK - LAMBERT, Alexandrine - 1833

[France], 1833. 4to (216 x 170 mm). Manuscript account book, 38 pages text in a notebook numbered in manuscript to 211 pp. of which all but the following pages remain blank: 2-3, 6-9, 12 [one line], 15-23, 101-105, 119-121, 130-131, 140-141, 150-151, 160-161, 170-171, 181, 183, 185-186. The first page (p. "2") is a Table of Contents on verso of the free endleaf. Written in brown ink in two or three hands, including a neat cursive, and one or two flowing slanted cursives. Calligraphic title. Contemporary portfolio binding of green morocco over flexible boards, large fore-edge flap wrapping across both covers and slipping through a wide strap (torn) on lower cover, gold-tooled border to covers, the flap and the strap, the flap lettered sideways in gilt capitals "Mlle Alexandrine Lambert," green morocco-grained coated endleaves, edges stained green (some scrapes and discoloration to covers, extremities of spine abraded). ***A handsomely bound manuscript account book of a well-off young girl or woman, apparently from Normandy, compiled by her brother, as stated at the foot of the title-page (Souvenir d'amitié de son affectionné Frère Auguste), with the pages listing revenues filled in by either herself or a third party. Mlle. Lambert had inherited some property from both her parents, deceased in 1826, and from a sister, at an unidentified date soon after. The accounts consist largely of rentes, which are more carefully identified than are the expenses. She was evidently a comfortable property owner, whose income derived mainly from the rental of several rural holdings, as well as some of the wood harvested thereon, and she was able to purchase new terrains and a house as further investment properties. The manuscript opens with a review of the state of Lambert's fortune in April 1826, and the revised situation following her inheritance (shared with other siblings), in November 1828. Follows a section of general accounting, showing expenses and receipts from November 1828 to 1833. Seven sections are each devoted to a different property and its usually unnamed tenant; in these the various buildings, fields, tree plantations or bosquets, gardens, and other nooks and crannies each have their own separate line, and sometimes their own name. An interesting witness to everyday life in rural France.