Annual Publication - "The ANNUAL" - Beauty Fad From 1823 To 1857

Beauty Fad From 1823 To 1857

See also literary annual

A new form of literary work called the "Annual" was a fad from about 1823 through 1857, and became so popular, that they were soon published up to 17 times a year. British royalty increased their popularity. They closely resemble many college literary "books" just produced for college campus today, except they contained lots of etchings of beautiful women from steel plates. They were the fashion magazines of the day. Later it became fashionable to watercolor the etchings, and the "Annuals" became early coloring books. There was later a backlash against "beauty", and the fad ended, as did steel plate etchings for books.

"The Annual" was a long running fad from 1824 until 1857 which started in England, but spilled over into the USA. Steel plates of the 1820s allowed book publishers to mass produce pictures. What started out as an "annual book" or a gift for the holidays, turned into something that had up to 17 editions through the year (yet were still called Annuals). Countess Blessington and other royal women contributed to the works, and altered fashion. This fad was sometimes referred to as "beauty", as books with plates of women defined the content. In one book, the steel plate was damaged and another picture of a woman was simply used as a replacement. The illustrations had often nothing to do with the text content. The content of the text was often of poor quality, and "The American Book of Beauty" contained a story of prison torture with an illustration of a pretty woman with a lapdog. The "American Book of Beauty", also has several copies of the books, with portraits in different orders. One edition of the "The Heath's Book of Beauty" was a college project, and contained poems, short stories, etc. 1826 was not a good year for the annuals, because of the Panic of 1825. In the 1830s you see a sarcastic poem about the Annuals by Thomas Hood (The Battle of the Annuals). Watercolor became popular in the 1830s, and the black and white etchings were the coloring books of the day. In 1842, Volume 1, page 521 of the Illustrated London News there are sarcastic pictures poking fun at the annuals. In 1844 there was an article referring to it as imbicilic mania, and finally the Obituary for the Annual, appeared in the Art Journal of 1857. The death of the annuals and new photo techniques replacing etching ended most engraver's careers.