Title: A Visit to the Country: With Surprise Model Pictures (Movable Book)
London: Dean & Son, 160A Fleet Street, [ca. 1892].
Oblong 4to (31 x 21.5 cm). [10] pp. Quarter blue cloth over illustrated paper-covered boards. Contains two full-page and one double-page movable scene, all operated via original string mechanisms.
Condition: Near fine. All movable parts are original and fully functional, with delicate threads intact and operable. Binding tight with no loose pages. Cloth spine and board edges show minimal wear. Pages clean and well preserved.
Description: This book is No. 4 in Dean & Son’s fragile yet ambitious “Surprise Model Picture Book” series, developed in the early 1890s. The scenes are animated by thread-driven mechanical action that creates the illusion of three-dimensionality. The pop-ups do not rise vertically but rather arc outward toward the viewer via cotton threads laterally affixed to each side, generating a bulging, sculptural effect. When held properly using thumb placements marked on each side of the spread, the reader activates the scene by pulling the picture into convex relief.
The book includes:
A single-page pop-up of a dog and child on a manicured lawn
A central double-page spread of a countryside garden party
A final single-page pop-up featuring children and trees at play near a grand country home
The work follows upper-class children visiting a country estate. The narrative, told in letter form from young Ethel to her friend Janie, introduces Ethel’s brother Leonard and younger sister Marjorie.
This unique design blends traditional layered pop-ups with Dean’s advanced thread-based mechanism. As noted in publisher advertisements of the time, the scenes "open, as if by magic, into model relief" and return to flatness upon closing.
Dean emphasized the fragility and innovation of these books with a red block of uppercase instructional text at the top of each pop-up page: “BEFORE OPENING EACH PAGE PLACE THUMBS WHERE MARKED, HOLD FIRMLY AND OPEN WIDE.” Drawings of thumbs appear on both sides of the image to assist young readers.
Collectors’ Corner:
According to Iona and Peter Opie, the Surprise Model books are among "the most ambitious and fragile of nineteenth-century pop-up books" due to the complexity and delicacy of their thread-based mechanisms.
Other Book in this series:
Surprise Model Picture Book (1892)
Freddy and Jack explore a windmill, ride a train, and visit a canal lock in this mechanically ambitious tale. Each spread features layered pop-up scenes with convex movement created by a unique thread mechanism.
A Tale of Old Sugar Tub (1892)
This mischievous adventure follows two boys who hide inside a sugar barrel and are unexpectedly taken away. The model pop-ups use Dean’s lateral string-pull technique to render lively, dimensional scenes.
Seaside Fun with Surprise Model Pictures (1892)
A seaside holiday comes alive with layered scenes of Brighton’s pier, boats, and beach amusements. Narrated in letter form, this story continues the adventures of Ethel, Leonard, and Marjorie, the trio featured across the series.
A Visit to the Country: With Surprise Model Pictures (1892)
See description above
The Surprise Animal Picture Book (1896)
This later title in the series features exotic animals and scenes set in locations such as India and Africa. The mechanism allows certain animals to rise forward from the page, enhancing the sense of three-dimensional realism. Advertisements praised it as a novel idea "successfully carried out" with “many animals… standing right away from the flat picture.”
Note: The Surprise Animal Picture Book (1896), part of Dean’s “2/6 Toy Books” series, was advertised in Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record, no. 211 (1896): 211, as featuring “an entirely new movement.” Through an automatic mechanism, the animals appear to walk out from the illustrations, forming vivid relief scenes and creating the illusion of motion and dimensionality.
Other References:
Carrington, Bridget, and Jennifer Harding, eds. Beyond the Book: Transforming Children’s Literature. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.
Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record of British and Foreign Literature. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., January 6, 1894, 28. Available at Google Books.