Recently acquired: an extraordinarily well-preserved example of a 19th century literary gift annual, a genre of artfully confected book issued for the holiday season, featuring contemporary poetry, essays, travel description, music, exquisite illustration (color as well as black and white), together with fine paper and superb printing.

Friendship’s Offering, or the Annual Remembrancer: a Christmas Present, or New Year’s Gift, for 1825. (London: Lupton Relfe, 13, Cornhill). Dimensions: 14.5 x 9.5 x 2.5 cm. Gift edges. Case includes original purple silk ribbon pull. Bookseller’s ticket on front pastedown: Zanetti & Agnew. Repository of Arts, 94 Market Street, Manchester.

As described in “List of Plates” on page [ix]:
Above left: “Illuminated external Embellishment” • above right: “Illuminated Title Page”

(Left) Spine of paper case (“external Embellishment”) • (Right) Front cover with blind embossing

For contemporary opinion, see:
[Review]. The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 94 (1824), p. 445

“The example of Mr. Ackermann, who has the merit of first introducing from the Continent this species of annual literature, has been followed by two powerful rivals. The first of these which comes under our notice, “Friendship’s Offering,” wears a most captivating appearance, not only as far as external embellishment, embossing, illuminating, &c. but from the beauty of the engravings and the interest of many of its articles, which are original compositions of no ordinary cast. The success of a trial last year has evidently stimulated the proprietors to increased efforts. The present volume contains Views of Constantinople, St. Petersburg, Berne, and Naples, with good Descriptions. Copies of celebrated Pictures, after Murillo, Claude, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Westall, Stothard, &c. The original articles bear the names of Mrs. Opie, Miss M. Edgeworth, Rev. T. Dale, H. E. Lloyd, esq. &c.&c. At the end of the volume is a blank Diary for memoranda, headed by 12 very neat wood engravings of antient castles, churches, &c. all in the county of Kent.

The aim of the editor of “Friendship’s Offering” appears to have been to combine the elegance of art and flowers of literature with the utility of the superior class of pocket-books, and in this (with the deficiency of an almanack, which would have necessarily much increased the price) he has in a great degree succeeded.”

“I think it necessary to assign the reasons why I have annex’d to this Narrative a plate, that must strike HOME to the hearts of the most harden’d, and prove to the most humane, offensive.; but it ought to be remember’d, that many people who are able to read, and even to write, are, nevertheless, unable to understand what they do read; and many such persons, I fear, are intrusted with the care of the poor. A print, therefore, to such people, is a lesson which all capacities may learn; it is a language every man can read; and as it has some, though very faint resemblance, of the deathly figures from whence it was taken, I flatter myself, it may make a deep and permanent impression on the minds of those men, who are disposed to forget that we are all made of the same composition; and that the day is not very remote, that even the youngest, the fairest, and the most beautiful part of the creation must fade, and become an object in the grave, at least, as ghastly as any of these. I must likewise bespeak the favour of the candid reader, to excuse the many errors of my pen: it was wholly written in the evening of a day, most disagreeably employed in a capacity in which I never served before, and hope I never shall again; a day, in which my mind has been distracted, not only by seeing shocking deformities in death, but in life also; a day, in which I have seen men, sinking with age and infirmities into the grave, violating with oaths and lies, the consecrated ground, which in a few months, (perhaps days,) may cover their bodies for ever.”

— Philip Thicknesse, An Account of The Four Persons Found Starved to Death, at Datchworth in Hertfordshire. By one of the Jurymen on the Inquisition taken on their Bodies. The Second Edition, with Additions. London: Printed (for the Benefit of the surviving Child) for W. Brown…; and R. Davies…. 1769, page 9-10. [Acquired in November 2009; call number (Ex) Item 5642061. According to the English Short Title Catalogue no copy of this Second Edition is recorded as being in a North American library. Princeton’s acquisition of this copy is being reported to ESTC accordingly.]

“In 1769, … a retired officer with a restless moral conscience, Philip Thicknesse, wrote a horrifying account, accompanied with an equally horrifying print, of Four Persons Found Starved to Death, at Datchworth. Such things were not supposed to happen in Hertfordshire, in what were called the Home Circuits surrounding the capital.

But there were probably as many wretched people like the Datchworth victims in the south (especially in the impoverished southwest of England) than in … Northumbria. For it was in southern England that the social results of ‘rural improvement’ — for good as well as for ill — were most dramatically apparent, especially in the lean years of the 1760s, when a succession of wheat harvest failures sent prices soaring and unleashed food riots in the towns and cities all the way from London to Derbyshire.”
— Simon Schama, A History of Britain: The Fate of the Empire, 1776-2000. New York: Hyperion, 2002, page 33.

More on the Datchworth victims from the RSC in London:
http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/2009/Datchworth.asp

Eight titlepages • typical of the whole

This new accession is a curious mix of 38 short works. Bound together in one single volume are some of a hyper-Protestant character (that is, anti-Romanist, anti-Mormon), some of the ‘Newgate Calendar class’(stories of criminals and their punishment), some on popular leisure (‘comic songs,’ ‘authentic history of the prize ring’) and others dealing with fires, massacres, tortures, atrocities, ‘the confessions of an undertaker,’ as well as the story of one of ‘the pretty horsebreakers of Rotten Row.’ Price of each? At least one pence, never more than 2. Readers were always told where to obtain copies, such as at the office of “H. Elliot, 475, New Oxford Street” but usually never does the pamphlet give its date of publication. Typographic style, textual content, method of illustration and other factors date and place them in the London penny press trade of the 1850s and 1860s. Taken as a whole, the volume is a marvelous array of cheap reading targeting the interests of the British working classes.

A goodly number of the penny and tuppence pamphlets in this new accession are not recorded as being held in research libraries in either the UK or the US. This makes sense because in the day of their publication, library collecting dogma did not consider their content and ephemeral form appropriate for what was deemed a ‘permanent’ collection. By the mid-twentieth century, this dogma had been replaced by a total reversal of doctrine. Ephemera of this sort was and continues to be considered the quotidian building stones of research collections.

Recently acquired • Bound in one volume with spine title: Penny Chap Book • Vol 1. A collection of 38 publications, priced 1d and 2d, printed during the 1850s and 1860s, chiefly in London.

Call number (Ex) Item 5623495

Contents

1. The Trials and Vicissitudes in the Life of Villiers Pearce. 
Printed & published by H. Elliot, 1856. Yellow wraps. 2d.  16pp.

2. An Authentic History of Freemasonry, ... 
Printed & published by . Elliot, 1853.
Illus. Yellow wraps. 2d.  16pp.

3. Priests and their Victims; or, Scenes in a Convent.  
Printed & published by H. Elliot, 1852. 
Illus. Yellow wraps. 2d.  16pp.

4. Confessions of a Detective Policeman: ... 
Printed & published by H. Elliot, [c.1852]. 
Illus. cutting inserted. Yellow wraps. 2d.  16pp.

5.  Mormon Revelations, being the history of fourteen females, ... 
Printed & published by H. Elliot, [c.1858]. 
Illus. cutting inserted. Yellow wraps. 2d. 16pp..  
*Title headed: Appalling Disclosures!

6. Bennett's Official Account of the Great Fire 
near London Bridge, Shocking death of Mr. Braidwood, 
and great loss of life. 
Printed & published for the booksellers, [1861]. 
Two column text 16pp.

7. The life, Death, and Burial of the late Mr. James Braidwood. 
A.P. Shaw, [1861]. Port., illus. cutting inserted.  8pp.

8. The Dreadful Fire at the Wharves, near London Bridge 
with the death of Mr. Braidwood. H.Disley, printer, [1861].  
Quarter sheet broadside, largely in verse.

9. The Yelverton Ballad and Love Songs, ... 
and Extraordinary Marriage of Teresa 
Longworth and Major Yelverton, ... 
E. Harrison, [1862]. Portraits, largely in verse. 8pp.

10. The Yelverton Marriage Case, ... Verdict of the Jury. 
Sold by Winn, [1861]. Tide headed: Price one penny. 8pp.

11. Narrative of the Massacres of Christians in Syria. 
Dreadful sufferings of women, and children cut to shreds, ... 
H. Vickers. Illus.id.  8pp.

12. Dassel, Adolph von. The Melancholy History and 
Miserable End of the Two Monsters of the Continent, the 
Communist Ox and the Socialist Ass.  Published by 
the Propaganda of Good Sense (A. Munro), 1851. 
Without the engraving, first leaf 
slightly torn at inner margin. 16pp.

13. The Life and Death together with the Extraordinary 
Exploits of the redoubtable Gen. Havelock, ... 
Elliot, Panic, 1858. 1d. 8pp.

14. The Dream of Miltiades; or, The Fall of Sebastopol. 
By the Author of "The Battle of Inkermann". 
Brighton: printed at C.Tourle's Office, [1856?]. 
Verse. Yellow wraps.  8pp. 
*'The Battle of Inkermann' may be 
the poem by a retired Liverpool Merchant, 1855.

15. The Original Comic Song Book, 
compiled by Hardwick, Labern, Ramsay, &c. ... No. 11. 
Pattie, [c. 1850]. Illus.  1d. 8pp.

16. (Young, James) The Rev. C.H. Spurgeon in a 
Fix, and Completely Confounded. 
Printed & published by James Young, [1863]. 1d. 7pp. 
James Young who signs the pamphlet on p.7, 
describes himself as a convert to the Jewish religion.

17. Mysteries of Mormonism. A history of the rise 
and progress of the notorious Latter Day Saints, ... 
H. Wilson, [c.1855]. 1d.  8pp.

18. Anti-Conspirator, pseud. 
 Regicide. Are refugees our enemies.  
Is Napoleon our ally.  J. Allen, 1858. 1d.  8pp.

19. An Authentic History of the Prize Ring 
and Championships of England, ... 
(Verbatim account from "The Times" and "Bell's Life" newspapers.)  
Diprose & Bateman, [1860]. 16pp.

20. (Wilkes, George).  A True Narrative of the Horrid Tortures 
practised in Naples, ... the Virgin's Kiss ... By an eye witness. 
H. Vickers, [c. 1860].  Illus. 1d.  8pp.

21. Watts, John. The Criminal History of the Clergyman. (No. 1.) 
Compiled byJ. Watts. Holyoake & Co., [1857]. 2d. 16pp.

22. The Dangers of Crinoline, Street Hoops, &c. 
G. Vickers, [1858]. Illus. 1d.  16pp.

23. The What is it? The extraordinary adventures, 
startling revelations, 
and narrow escapes of Du Chaillu, ... 
Printed & published at the City Printing Press, [c.1860?]. Illus. 
Front  wraps with repeat illus. hand col. 2d. 16pp.

24. The Five Great Americans ... Gough, Northrop, Finney, 
Rarey, and Heenan. H.J. Tresidder. 
(Leaders of the day, no. 4.) July, 1860. 1d.  8pp.

25. The Reverend Charles Haddon Spurgeon's Continental Tour. 
H.J. Tresidder. (Leaders of the day, no. 10.) [c.1860]. 12pp.

26. The life of His Late Royal Highness the Prince 
Consort, with an account of his last moments, ... 
5th edn. W. Oliver, [1862]. Port 1d.  16pp.

27. A Full Account of the Windham Lunacy Case,
 with anecdotes ... 
Elliott, [1862]. Port.  1d. Misbound but complete. 20pp.

28. Williams, Dr.  A Thunderbolt 
for Colenso, the 
Heretic Bishop of Natal. 
Elliot, [1862?]. 1d.  16pp.

29. Appalling Narrative of Russian Atrocities: 
... By a Polish Exile. 
H. Vickers, [c.1860]. Illus.1d.  8pp.

30. Midnight Meetings and the Social Evil !!! 
The life of Lucy Anderson, one of the pretty horsebreakers 
of Rotten Row, written by herself. 
Elliot, [c.1860]. Illus.1d.  8pp.

31. Tommey, Henry, Sen.  Let Justice be done!
The startling narrative of an old veteran who served 
under Wellington ... 
Printed & published by H. Tommey, 1863. 
Orig. green wraps. 1d. 12pp.

32. Mr. Somes and his foolish, mischievous, and obnoxious Beer Bill 
and its tyrannical effects upon the Working Classes; 
... Sunday riots in Hyde Park. 
Farrah & Dunbar; J. & H. Purkess, &c.  1d.  8pp.

33. The Astounding Confessions of an Undertaker, 
... Shocking Disclosures. 
News Agents' Publishing Co., [c.186-?]. Illus. 16pp.

34. The Manchester Murders. 
Manchester: John Heywood; London: G. Vickers, [1862?[. 
Illus. 16pp. 
*Sent by post with 1d stamp to M. Beggs, 37 Southampton St., London.

35. Mormon Disclosures ... 
Liverpool: James Gage. [c.l860?]. 1d.  16pp. 
*The same text as 'Mormon Revelations' q.v.

36. The Three Skeletons: a ghostly Christmas story. 
Revelations of a French physician. 
The mysterious casket. The burning furnace. 
The lost child. E. Harrison, [1862?]. 
Illus.,  two column text. 1d.  16pp.

37. O'Kane v. Lord Palmerston.  
All about the great scandal ... 
Published at the Office of the "City News", [1863]. 
With cutting tipped in at front & 4 at end. 1d.  8pp.

38. The Disgraceful Death of an English judge, 
in a House of Ill-Fame. Leeds: T. Pinder, [1884]. Illus.(8 pp.)  
*Added later to the collection.