"WHY IS THAT YOUTHFUL QUEEN, THE PRIDE OF BRITAIN, THERE? GOES SHE TO WIN THE LAUREL WREATH TO DECK HER TRESSES FAIR?"

SHOBERL, Frederick, ed. Forget Me Not. A Christmas, New Year's, and Birthday Present, for MDCCCXLVI. London: Ackermann, (1846). Small octavo, contemporary full red morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and boards, watered silk endpapers, all edges gilt, gilt tasselled silk bookmark; housed in a custom clamshell box. $2200.

1846 edition, the penultimate edition of this Victorian literary annual, featuring prose and poetry and ten engraved plates, finely bound with Queen Victoria's monogram in gilt.

The literary annual was a particularly Victorian form, a literary collection—often lavishly illustrated and elaborately bound—intended to be given as a gift. The publisher Ackermann began issuing his annual, Forget Me Not, in 1822, and did so yearly until 1847; this is the penultimate edition in that series. The binding features Queen Victoria's monogram within a crowned ringlet with the motto of the Order of the Garter, "Honi soit qui mal y pense," set within. The first selection in the volume, "The Royal Guest," by American Lydia Signourney, is a poetic description of "the visit of Queen Victoria to King Louis Philippe."

Faint marginal foxing to a few plates. About-fine condition.