Sotheby's upcoming sale, Style: Mobilier, Objets d’art et Orfèvrerie on 9 April in Paris, features this remarkable gilt-bronze gardeners' calendar. A charming object of exquisite refinement, it brings together a technical mastery of gilt bronze and a host of wisdom on managing the changing seasons to optimise the year's harvest. The twelve engravings brought together on six recto-verso sheets depict, for each month, a thousand sumptuous details, pithy proverbs and analogies about men, women and their love essential to all lovers of nature. Click the image above to view the slideshow and explore this piece's finer details.