The Juvenile Forget Me Not: A Christmas and New Year’s Gift or Birthday Present

1829-1837

Hogg Collection AY13 JZ2

London: Frederick Westley and A. H. Davis

The ornate and decoratively embossed ‘Apollo’ cover of this Juvenile Forget-Me-Not annual of 1831 was created by Thomas de La Rue, who introduced technical improvements in playing card production in England in the early 1830s. De La Rue (the name is visible lower left) used a fly embossing press, an early version of a blocking press, which was capable of exerting the enormous pressure required to block the covers with engraved plates. The book was actually bound by the firm Francis Westley who, according to the binder’s ticket present, was based at Friar St. near Doctors Commons. Binding annuals was big business for Westley; they often exceeded 15,000 copies per issue.