"O, MERRY SPRING, THOU COMEST, WITH SOFT BREATHED GALES AND SHOWERS, AND WHERE'ER THOU ROAMEST BLITHE UPSPRING THE FLOWERS"

SHOBERL, Frederick, ed. Forget Me Not. A Christmas, New Year's, and Birthday Present, for MDCCCXLVII. London: Ackermann, (1847). Small octavo, contemporary full red morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and boards, watered silk endpapers, all edges gilt; housed in a custom clamshell box. $2200.

1847 edition, the final 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 final edition from that series, and the final one save a solitary edition published in 1856. 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.

Fine condition.