#giftbooks

This time of year is gift-giving season, and around here that means gift books!

Literary annuals embellished with lots of illustrations and done up in fancy bindings, gift books were all the rage between the 1820s-1850s. They were typically published towards the end of the year, just in time for the holidays.

This edition of the Token for 1830 is bound in purple moiré silk, and the title simply and elegantly stamped in gold on the spine.

The Token. (Boston, [1829])

The Liberty Bell was issued in 15 editions between 1839 and 1858. This one, from 1848, is bound in white and red striped patterned book cloth, which was popular at the time. Compiled by the Friends of Freedom and issued for the Anti-Slavery Bazaar, it is one of the few gift books published in support of the abolitionist cause.