[Dance] [Quadrille]. Paine of Almack's Quadrilles. 16 gilt-edged cards, 2.6 x 1.9 in. in maroon leather slipcase (bottom portion only), showing 32 Quadrille dance instructions in French. Published by Henry Falkner's Opera Music Warehouse , 3 Old Bond Street London, ca. 1840. Each card punctured at the head for hooking to a dance-card holder, otherwise in good condition with moderate expected soiling and wear from use.

A precursor to traditional square dancing, the Quadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a rectangular formation. Imported by English aristocrats in the first quarter of the 19th century from elite Parisian ballrooms, it consisted of four, or sometimes five, contredanses.