Rood-Kapje – Dean’s Scenic Series #2 (Dutch Edition, ca. 1899)
Amsterdam: J. Vlieger, [n.d., circa 1899].
25.4 × 17.5 × 0.8 cm (10 × 6 7/8 × 5/16 inches).
First Dutch edition. Ten pages. Features a double-page pop-up scene at the center of the book. Original pictorial cover illustration of Little Red Riding Hood (Rood-Kapje) with her basket and floral bouquet, set in a forest landscape. Published by J. Vlieger of Amsterdam. Lithographic printer uncredited.The center pop-up is in complete original condition. The book is still firmly bound. The back cover has some taped tears, as shown in the photographs.
Collector’s Corner:
This Dutch edition is part of the Dean’s Scenic Series, a rare movable book series featuring vivid pop-up illustrations. Of the series, only the first volume (Visit to the Farm) is listed in Montanaro. However, additional research confirms the series includes four volumes:
#1 Visit To the Farm
#2 Red Riding Hood
#3 Three Bears
#4 Cinderella
(We have three of the four listed on this website: numbers 1, 2, and 4.)
This publication order and series information is corroborated by The Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record of British and Foreign Literature, Volume 73 (1900), page 423.
Of particular note, the only Dutch-language copy known from this series resides in the collection of the Bruikleen van het Letterkundig Museum in the Netherlands.
Additionally, reference to the fourth volume (Cinderella) appears in a circa 1907 catalog from the firm J. Vlieger in Amsterdam. The catalog entry describes it as follows:
"In the middle of four large plates, said bristles at the opening of the book and in this way form a great effect panoramas."
This corresponds to the copy titled The history of Asschepoester or the glass slipper with lithographs credited to Amand. Lith. The copy held by the Bruikleen van het Letterkundig Museum can be viewed here:
https://www.kb.nl/themas/kinderboeken-en-strips/sprookjes-in-de-kb/asschepoester
Dean’s Scenic Series saw multiple European adaptations in the late 1890s. We have a German edition of Visit to the Farm, titled Ferienzeit auf dem Lande, published by Carl Hirsch in Konstanz/Switzerland around 1899. Noted in both the 1900 “Vierteljahrs‑Katalog der Neuigkeiten des Deutschen Buchhandels” and the 1903 Kayser’s Buch‑Handels‑Lexikon, it shares identical dimensions and pop-up structure with the Dutch and English siblings