Dame Wonder’s Transformations: Multiplication Table.
New-York: Edward Dunigan, [between 1843 and 1848]. Small 12mo (4.25 × 7 in.).
American edition after Dean & Munday (later Dean & Son), following the same transformation format: six hand-colored engraved leaves (rectos only), the first five with circular apertures; terminal leaf printed with the constant face, visible through each aperture as the pages are turned.
Illustrations engraved by Robert H. Elton, per contemporary and modern references (Michael Joseph 2003; 19th Century Juvenile Series), though not signed in this copy.
Six hand-colored engraved leaves (rectos only): five with circular apertures; terminal face leaf printed with the constant face, visible through each aperture as pages are turned.
Illustrated by Robert H. Elton.
Condition: Complete other than front wrapper lacking; rear printed wrapper (green advert listing the 12 titles) present, rubbed and creased with small chips. Original side stab-sewing perished with later oversewing/hand stitching now visible at several stations; one plate with a vertical tear through the image crudely hand-stitched; a few short edge tears and nicks elsewhere. Contemporary coloring generally bright; paper with expected toning, scattered foxing and thumb-soil, light tidelines, rounded corners; occasional pencil figures in the tables. Despite losses and repairs, all the pages are there and complete. Early American adaptation, illustrations engraved by Robert H. Elton. Overall Good only, sound but worn.
Rarity note (mechanical issue only).
Copies of Dame Wonder’s Transformations retaining the original aperture mechanism—five leaves with circular cut-outs revealing the constant face on the terminal leaf—are genuinely scarce, in both the Dean & Munday/Dean & Co. (UK) and Edward Dunigan/Dunigan & Brother (US) editions. Survival is low because these were toy books handled by children: apertures tear easily, the terminal face leaf is often missing, and wrappers commonly perish. Later 19th-century reissues (incl. Dunigan & Brother and McLoughlin) typically omit the mechanism, so mechanically intact examples of any title in the original 12-title set are quite scarce.
Collector's Corner:
Theses books by Dunigan had a London origin (ca. 1840). In the early 1840s, the British publisher Dean & Munday (soon Dean & Co.) launched Dame Wonder’s Transformations: slim toy books in which five leaves have circular apertures precisely registered to reveal a constant face printed on the terminal leaf as dress and scenes change from page to page. Some London wrappers credit Robert Edgar (“Uncle Buncle”) for the art, but the signal innovation is the bound, hole-through-pages format itself. In New York, Edward Dunigan did not import Dean’s blocks—he imported the idea. With no enforceable international copyright between Britain and the United States, American houses commonly recreated British picture books by re-engraving them. Dunigan obtained copies of the Dean books and commissioned New York wood-engraver/illustrator Robert H. Elton to redraw the images and cut entirely new blocks, keeping the compositions close enough to preserve the mechanism’s precise registration—five apertured leaves with the terminal face leaf—while adjusting the wording for an American readership where needed.
According to Michael Joseph, “Old Comic Elton and the Age of Fun: Robert H. Elton and the Picture Book,” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 28, no. 2 (2003): 85–103, Elton (“Old Comic Elton”) served as the principal illustrator and engraver for Dunigan’s Dame Wonder’s Transformations around 1842–1843. Elton’s careful block work enabled the hallmark “hole-in-the-head” effect (a single face on the terminal leaf showing through each circular aperture as pages turn). His images proved influential enough that later reprints by Dunigan & Brother (1848–1857) and by McLoughlin Brothers (into the 1880s) continued to reuse Elton’s blocks, often with little alteration. Elton’s work not only shaped the American versions of the series but also helped establish the visual language of nineteenth-century American toy books, linking British movable traditions to emerging U.S. publishing practice.
How the partnership formed and what followed. A likely catalyst was Dunigan’s push, circa 1842–43, to bring the newest London novelties into New York publishing. Elton—already a prolific engraver-publisher with precise registration—was the ideal adapter. Their collaboration produced a twelve-title American line under the Dame Wonder’s Transformations banner from Dunigan’s 151 Fulton Street imprint (continued later by Dunigan & Brother). By the 1850s, interactive picture-book technology (flaps, peepshows, later pop-ups and pull-tabs) had advanced so quickly that the simple face-through-apertures device no longer felt technologically exciting; accordingly, Dunigan & Brother and later McLoughlin reissued the material as straight picture books, dropping the cut-out head while still relying on Elton’s recut blocks. In the same period, Elton went on to be John McLoughlin Sr.’s partner and engraver; John McLoughlin, Jr. (1827–1905) had worked as a teenager in Elton’s engraving/printing company, co-owned by his father—an early connection that helps explain the later McLoughlin revivals.
Publisher timeline
Edward Dunigan: 1837–1848
Edward Dunigan & Brother: 1848–1862
Succeeded by James B. Kirker (frequent co-publisher, 1855–1860)
James B. Kirker (solo imprint): begins 1861 at 599 Broadway
According to the back-wrapper advertisement, Dunigan issued twelve hole/head titles under “Dame Wonder’s New and Curious Transformations, embellished with highly-colored engravings”:
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Dame Wonder’s Little Traveller
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Dame Wonder’s Little Drummer
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Dame Wonder’s Little Sailor Boy
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Dame Wonder’s Table Book
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Dame Wonder’s Multiplication Table
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Dame Wonder’s Amusing Alphabet
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Dame Wonder’s Birds and Beasts
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Dame Wonder’s Miss Rose
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Dame Wonder’s Master Rose
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Dame Wonder’s Mary Goodchild
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Dame Wonder’s Orphan Girl
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Dame Wonder’s History how a Little Boy became Lord Mayor of London
References:
Edmonds, Joseph, and Ian Alcock. “A Head of Its Time: Early Toy Books with Hole Effects.” Movable Stationery 26, no. 2 (May 2018).
Michael Joseph, “Old Comic Elton and the Age of Fun: Robert H. Elton and the Picture Book,” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 28, no. 3 (2003): 158–170. https://doi.org/10.1353/chq.0.1458
Schein, Anna. “The History of McLoughlin Brothers Children’s Books.” WVU Libraries News (blog), December 10, 2018. https://news.lib.wvu.edu/2018/12/10/the-history-of-mcloughlin-brothers-childrens-books
Tisinger, Jo. “Dean & Son Publishers—A Short History.” Movable Stationery 21, no. 2 (May 2013): 3.
Edward Dunigan.” 19th Century Juvenile Series. Accessed October 13, 2025. https://19thcenturyjuvenileseries.com/publishers/dunigan.html
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