Dioramic Pages (Movable)
London: Dean & Son, 65, Ludgate Hill, E.C. [1869].
8vo (25 x 17 cm). pp. 24. Illustrated with six chromolithograph dioramic plates, each with a silk lifting tab and mounted over intricate cut tissue sheets. Each plate is hinged at the foot and reveals a second hidden image when held to the light, forming a transformation view.
Bound in original pictorial glazed paper-covered boards. The upper cover features a decorative chromolithograph design with the title lettered within a central cartouche depicting a mother and child admiring the transformation effect, bordered with ornate Victorian motifs and doggerel verse. Rear cover contains publisher's advertisements.
Condition: VG Spine professionally replaced; replacement of lifting ribbons. All pages and delicate tissue overlays are original, complete, and free from damage.
Description: An exceptionally rare and visually striking movable book. Each dioramic page illustrates one of six children’s stories, and reveals a secondary illuminated scene when the tab is lifted and the plate is held to the light. These light-activated transformations remain impressive even by modern standards.
Title page verse:
"These changing pictures, held up to the light,
Will turn summer's noon, to cold winter's night;
Change flowing rivers into flame and fire;
Cause mountains calm to issue ashes dire;
Bring fearful war on to the peaceful town;
If light behind the lifted page is thrown."
Contents:
The Gipsy Tent, or, Lost and Found
The Child and the Flowers
The Miller's Son, or the Heedless Yet Heroic
The Blacksmith's Daughter, or Fog and Fear
The Faithful Nurse
The Little Drummer Boy
Later editions are unrecorded, likely due to the fragility of the paper construction and tissue elements. No follow-up series appears to have been issued.
As advertised by Dean & Son in The Bookseller, Dec. 13, 1869, p. 1196: “A new idea in Toy Books, the pictures of which are printed in Chromo colours, and can be made by holding them to the light to produce two entirely different effects.”
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