Most people, when asked about their favorite book, will invariably include a book they read as a child. Hemingway famously proclaimed that "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn". Twain's book, like its predecessor, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, were books whose intended audience was young readers. Such books speak to us on multiple levels. As literature, they are well-crafted and clever with memorable characters and conflicts, but they matter to us for more than these reasons because we discovered them at a formative period of our lives. Their ideas helped to form our own, and so they are more personal ...
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London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, (1912). Quarto. (13)pp. Six full-page color plates, each of which depicts anthropomorphized animals, accompanied by lyricized fables printed on the opposing page. The fables included are "The Fox and the Stork," "The Wolf and the Lamb," "The City Rat and the Country Rat," "The...
Amsterdam: Cohen Zonen, (n.d.). Octavo. (10)pp. Four full color movable images, and black & white illustrations throughout. The movables illustrate humans and animals taking part in charming circus scenes: monkeys clamber about a ladder, an elephant balances a clown upon its trunk, another well-dressed elephant plays the tuba in front.....
(N.p. c. 1835). 24mo. (56)pp. 98 hand-colored chalk lithographs. This book is part of a genre of minor magic tricks, known as flip books or blow books, in which the magician fans the pages using small notches at the foreedge. By flipping through one tab, the magician suggests that the...
London: Dean & Son, (1857). Small octavo. (9)ff. A very unusual and humorous children's book, with eight movable pages. On each page is a cut-out character, lithographed and hand-colored, standing against a wall. The figure may be moved aside by means of a tab, exposing the revealing shadow he has...
NY: G.W. Carleton, 1879. Octavo. (96)ff. Features forty-eight color lift-the-flap illustrations (including the title page) in which the closed image illustrates the beginning of a verse and the open image depicts its conclusion. With numerous classic rhymes by Mother Goose, including the full versions of Old Mother Hubbard, and a....
London: Dean & Son, (n.d.). Small quarto. 8ff., printed one side only. Eight pages with full hand-colored images—sometimes more than one to a page—all of which bear movable features. These are manipulated through paper tabs toward the bottom of the illustration. Pulling a tab back and forth causes Mother Hubbard's.....
London: Dean & Son, (1859). Small quarto. (8)ff. Eight hand-colored engravings, all with movable parts. These movable images are operated through paper tabs and show the titular old woman with a host of animals as she tries to tame her newly purchased pig. The text of the story lies below...
London: Dean & Son, (c. 1870). Quarto. (8)pp. All pages feature a scene from Punch and Judy at the top, cast against a shadowy stage and hand-colored. The scenes are animated by pulling a tab at the bottom of the page, below the play's script and an image of a....
Paris: Dean & Son / A. Capendu, (mid-19th century). Small quarto. (8)pp. Contains four color movable illustrations, with other whimsical circus imagery throughout the accompanying text. The movable images, which operate by pulling tabs, show clowns balancing on their heads, performing tricks with dogs, and riding donkeys. Copyrighted by Dean...
Berlin: (Carl Schauer, c. 1895). Small quarto. (8)pp. Four full-page color plates with volvelles. Each plate depicts a particular scene—”Das Theater,” “Die Menagerie,” “Der Bildermann,” and “Das Karussel”—which is described in lyric verse on the facing page. The turning mechanisms then change a certain portion of the image. For example.....
NY: Bouillon-Sanders & Chopp, (1926). Quarto. (16)pp. Illustrated throughout in color and black & white, and in a bright orange binding featuring the main character, Willie, with fully movable arms. A "Willie Wait a Minute," who is always postponing his responsibilities to play just a minute longer, is able to...
Paris: Capendu, A., (n.d.). Small quarto. (14)pp. Six full-page color plates with movable elements, plus black & white illustrations scattered throughout the text. The movable images are operated through tabs, which bring to life a band of young boys playing tricks on a giant ogre, and the ogre at the.....
c. 1835. Movable figure of a black Arabian horse mounted to a hand-colored landscape backdrop that measures 10 by 8 3/4 inches (251x196mm). The horse is articulated using a series of metal pins that allow it to be manipulated into various positions. Accompanied by eight interchangeable rider figures, all of...
Mantova: Corraini Editore, 1996. First edition, with English text. This engaging and tactile picture book uses layers of printed translucent overlays and cut-out paper windows to create illustrations that transform as the pages are turned. This provides forward momentum for the story, which is told mainly through images with very...
Mantova: Maurizio Corraini, 1996. (29)ff. First edition, with English text. This famous children's book was born out of Munari's concept of the "illegible book." Its illustrations in bold, solid colors are emphasized, and are accompanied by minimal text in Italian. The tale is not only told with captivating images, but...
Tours: Maison Alfred Mame et Fils, (c. 1920). Quarto. 127pp., + (16)ff. One of sixteen copies, with a signed original gouache for one of the sixteen color plates by Neziere, opposite p. 63. Highly colored and caricature-like in style, the painting illustrates "L'Ane et le Petit Chien (The Little Dog...
Amsterdam: Wed. G. A. Diederichs en Zoon and Mindermann, (c. 1820). Four paper packets with thirty-six paper figures. The figures are cut from laid paper so that a lantern shining through the cut-out portions would project the image onto a wall or sheet. The largest packet, containing six sheets, was...
(c. 1830). Optical toy with forty-two hand-colored engraved slides. The Polyorama Panoptique was popular from the 1820s through the 1850s as a small-scale version of Daguerre's famous Diorama. The toy consists of a wooden box attached to a paper concertina, which can be adjusted as needed, and a lens in...
(N.p. c. 1940). Oblong small quarto. (9)ff. A handmade children's counting book featuring animals in parent-child relationships. There are two turtles, six bees, eight frogs, and ten beavers, for example. The book only encompasses numbers two through ten. The illustrations are done in charcoal. Bound by metal rings with paper...
Lausanne: F. Payot; Vevey, Loertscher and Jacot-Guillarmod, (1889). Oblong octavo. (24) ff. A panorama which opens out to show a colorful wedding procession of musicians, vintners, farmworkers, and costumed villagers. The Roman goddesses of the harvest, Ceres and Pales, follow their attendants in ox-drawn chariots, and Bacchus' chariot is pulled...
Amsterdam: Van Arum, (ca. 1810-20). Square 12mo. 62pp. The title translates to "Benevolent Louise, the girl with six forms, an entertaining gift for girls, with seven colored movable plates." Each chapter follows Louise in different roles, for example, "Louise as a nun" or "Louise in a ball-gown." The rear paste-down...
(Germany: c. 1850). Very rare boxed set, consisting of two identical 7-inch-tall female paper dolls, both two-sided. With eight brightly colored costumes, also two-sided, and eight hats and hairstyle pieces. The wardrobe includes outfits for all occasions: a practical brown-striped skirt and warm lace-trimmed cloak, a stately crimson damask gown...
(England: c. 1900). A set of nine hand-drawn and aquatinted costumes, each matted separately, with a delicately featured lady's head that transfers between the costumes by fitting into a slot at the neck. The costumes include a riding habit flowing down the side of a horse, outdoor wear, and dresses...
Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1945. Folio. (14)ff., two of which fold out, + (7) strips. Intact and unused paper activity book designed by Italian artist Edina Altara. Includes a wide variety of colorful paper toys and dolls: an illusionist, finger-puppet dancing girls, a three-dimensional carousel, a regiment of soldiers, birds and...
Akron, OH: Saalfield Pub. Co., 1933. Oblong folio. (6)ff. First edition. Intact and unused paper doll book of a fully-stocked grocery store. Includes 206 perforated pieces printed on heavy card stock. The grocery store is well-stocked with a detailed and thorough selection of foodstuffs: sweets, produce, baking ingredients, meats, and...
![[Magical Blow Book].](/pictures/thumb/28790.jpg?v=1553098757)
