[FRENCH GIFT BOOKS / KEEPSAKES]. Bibliographie Sommaire des Keepsakes et Autres Recueils Collectifs de la Periode Romantique, 1823-1848

Paris: L. Giraud Badin, 1929. Softcover. Very good. 16.5 x 25 cm. 8vo. 2 vols. I: xvi, 320 pp.; II: 355 pp. Uncut and largely unopened. Original pale blue printed wrappers (spines faded to brown, otherwise excellent). Beautiful copy, largely unopened, of the foremost bibliography on the subject of French "Keepsakes" of Gift Books, still unsurpassed. Our copy is completely free of all library labels, markings, foxing, etc. which disfigures most copies currently available. KEEPSAKES: These were small annual or "gift" volumes designed primarily for the Christmas and New Year market, popular in many countries in the first half of the 19th-century. These "Forget-Me-Not" volumes consisted primarily of poetry and short pieces of prose. The main emphasis was on the wood- and steel-engraved illustrations, and indeed some of the leading artists of the day produced illustrations for Keepsakes. Of additional interest are the ornate publishers' bindings in cloth, silk, and leather, frequently with extravagant decoration, for which "gift books" remain popular to the present day.