In the early 19th Century pocket annuals in the form of gift books enjoyed considerable popularity, the success of some publications evidence by the long sequence of years during which they were issued.
The Christmas annual organised by Dr. Thornton was a typically ambitious project including prose, verse, music and general information with contributions by writers as diverse as Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott and Thornton's own daughter Sylvia. Illustrations included reduced versions of four plates from Thornton's celebrated Temple of Flora. Despite the somewhat uneasy relationship that Blake had with Thornton over the illustrations to The Pastorals of Virgil in 1821 he was persuaded, presumably by John Linnell again, to contribute to the present work. Thornton's annual met with a poor response and the sequel and last edition was merely a reissue of the first with the date of the title-page altered to 1826.

Due to the ephemeral nature of the publication and its limited length of issue complete copies are extremely rare. In 25 years Keynes managed to collect some six copies which are now at the Fitzwilliam.
Bentley records only four further copies. Blake's engraving by itself must be regarded as an object of some scarcity.