[f. KEEP v. + SAKE: cf. namesake.] Anything kept or given to be kept for the sake of, or in remembrance of, the giver. spec. The name given to certain literary annuals consisting of collections of verse, prose, and illustrations, common in the early part of the nineteenth century; so called as being designed for gifts.
1790. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, April. She sent me a little neat pocket volume, which I accept … as just the keepsake [etc.].
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxvi. A beautiful new sequin, that Ludovico gave me for a keepsake.
1861. Sat. Rev., 7 Dec., 587. She pulls out a pair of scissors, and cuts out a patch as a keepsake.
1862. Thornbury, Turner, I. 249. About 1824, the frivolous keepsake mania … gave an impetus to modern art. Keepsakes are said to have originated in an idea suggested by Mr. Alaric Watts.
1885. R. Buchanan, Annan Water, iv. Take the money and buy yourself a keepsake to remind you of me.
b. attrib.; spec. Having the inane prettiness of faces depicted in a keepsake volume; having the namby-pamby literary style of such books.
1848. (title) Keepsake Gift Book of Tales and Poetry.
1895. Hamilton Aïdé, Elizabeth’s Pretenders, 199. With the faintest touch of rouge … and her keepsake air, she felt herself to be irresistible.
1898. Daily Chron., 8 Oct., 4/7. ‘Eyes raised towards heaven are always fine eyes’ may have a sort of ‘keepsake’ prettiness, but is really not common sense.
Hence Keepsaky a., of the style of the compositions or illustrations in a keepsake volume.
1871. Geo. Eliot, in Cross, Life, III. 145. That keepsakey, impossible face which Maclise gave him [Dickens].
1891. Daily News, 26 Dec., 3/1. The more smooth and keepsaky style [of illustration].
