ANNUALS
Of books issued serially once a year two special classes have particularly interested collectors.
(1) The anthologies of prose and/or verse, usually illustrated with steel engravings, which were a feature of late Regency and early Victorian publishing in England: copied originally from German and French models. Examples are The Keepsake, The Book of Beauty, Friendship’s Offering, The Literary Souvenir. These were the gift books or ‘table books’ of the day, and many of them contain first printings of work by famous authors, often anonymous.
(2) The Christmas annuals issued late in the 19th century by the publishers of popular or fashionable magazines; e.g. Belgravia, The Mistletoe Bough, Tinsley’s, Routledge’s. These would often contain, and sometimes consist entirely of, a short novel by a contemporary best-seller or a promising dark horse.
Previous ABC’s of Book Collecting posts
Carter, John & Nicolas Barker
ABC’s of Book Collecting. 8th Edition
New Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press, 2004