Happy New Year!: The Gift Book Annual and the Blooks They Inspired

A sixth-plate daguerrotype case. Philadelphia, ca. 1855. Library Company. (Image by Robert N. Keely). Daguerrotype housed in a book-style case. Unsigned.

Between 1823 and 1861, lavish gift books were produced as gifts for the New Year in England and later in America. Their popularity and success as gifts for children and adults, caused a spin-off of a group of book objects made in their emulation. These objects include photograph cases, sewing kits and trinket boxes. The faux gift books were made in as many decorative binding styles and techniques as the real books. Examples are lacquer bindings, gold-tooled leather bindings, painted paper bindings and stamped cloth bindings. In general, the names of their makers are not known, but there are some exceptions.

Painted lacquer book-shaped daguerrotype case entitled "Friendship's Offering"  for a portrait of the poet Lydia H, Sigourney, 1852.

New Year gift books had their roots in the elegant French and German almanacs and friendship books that were characterized by their beautiful bindings, a variety of contemporary literary material and high-quality steel engravings. These relatively expensive books were marketed to middle-class families and their publishers took great care to ensure that their appearance complemented the library, parlor, and boudoir. The gift books were given sentimental titles such as Friendship’s Offering, The Gem, The Token, Forget Me not, Keepsake, and Literary Souvenir. Many innovations in bookbinding technology were developed for and tested on the literary annuals. Early volumes were bound in colored, glazed paper covers, printed with decorative motifs. Later volumes were bound in silk fabric and decorative leather bindings.

Sewing Kit

The Gem

English, c. 1840

Leather, silk moiré, book board portfolio with flaps

11.6 x 6.6 x 2.0 cm (4.6 x 2.6 x 0.8 in)

Dubansky Collection

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

An Alarming Hybrid. An Exploding Publishers' Binding

Exploding book. Kelco Loud Book: A Great Warning to You on Preparedness. Wake Up. An Alarming Report. Designed and sold by John J. Reinhold, Marietta, Pa. American. c. 1912.

Stamped cloth publisher's binding, binders waste, metal trap
14.7 x 9.2 x 1.5 cm

Unlike later gag exploding or shooting books which were made from altered books, those seen from the first decade of the 20^th century are custom-made, probably by commercial bookbinders. This book has a wonderful publisher’s binding of cream plain-weave cloth, stamped in red and blue. The book lists two US patents (1041095; 1166053) which are for the shooting mechanism.

If you are a blog follower, you might remember this example of an 1930s exploding book in this post I showed awhile back. http://aboutblooks.blogspot.com/search?q=exploding+book.

In that post I alluded to an earlier group of exploding books from the beginnng of the 20th century. I've found two recently, both by Kelco. I'm very excited about this one for several reasons: First it is a link between the bindery trade and the gag books trade. It is a publisher's binding, custom designed for this object. It is a glorious binding in great condition. It is not an altered book; but has a text block made up of pages from binder's waste. The last great thing about it is that the patented exploding mechanism (aka mousetrap) is different from any I have previously seen. For the record, it's also the second exploding book I have seen that makes a pun of the word 'report', the other being one I saw an ad for, titled Teddy's Report. While rare today, these books were once published by the thousands in numerous design variations and titles.