Campagne & Zoon
De Tooverlantaarn Struwelpeter (Movable Book)
[Amsterdam: Campagne & Zoon, ca. 1897].
Description:
Scarce Dutch movable edition of Warne’s The Magic Lantern Struwwelpeter. Folio (11.75 x 9.75 inches / 29.85 x 24.77 cm). [12] pp. Issued without publishing information but bibliographically attributed to H. Campagne & Zoon of Amsterdam. Color-printed cover features a volvelle-mounted circular cut-out that reveals a sequence of chromolithographed images as the wheel is turned, mimicking a magic lantern effect. Interior includes twelve cautionary tales in rhymed Dutch verse with full-page chromolithographs. Printed on rectos only; versos blank
Condition:
Very good. Volvelle mechanism fully functional with clean rotation; all internal pages clean, complete, and free of repair. Moderate toning to covers consistent with age; minor edgewear to extremities. A well-preserved example of a fragile and seldom-seen mechanical book.
Attribution:
Though unmarked, the edition is cited in Lust en Leering (Buijnsters & Buijnsters-Smets, 2001) and aligns with the simplified 1896 English-language version by Frederick Warne & Co. Published under the pseudonym "Rosa," and issued in Amsterdam ca. 1897. An important and elusive title within the movable Struwwelpetriaden tradition. According to Theo Gielen* - In 1896, Warne & Co. issued a simplified edition of The Magic Lantern Struwwelpeter, reducing the movable feature to a single wheel built into the front cover that displayed just four images of the girl who played with fire, and cutting the contents to twelve stories. The following year, in 1897, a Dutch edition appeared under the literally translated title De Tooverlantaarn Struwelpeter, attributed to the pseudonymous “Rose” (identity still unresolved), and published in Amsterdam by Campagne & Zoon.
Rarity: No institutional holdings of this Dutch edition are confirmed in WorldCat or major European library catalogs. It is cited in Lust en Leering (2001) and Movable Stationery (1997), but known surviving examples - are virtually nonexistent.
Collector’s Corner
A rare Dutch edition of The Magic Lantern Struwwelpeter, this movable book—De Tooverlantaarn Struwelpeter—was published ca. 1897 and features a striking volvelle mechanism embedded into the front cover. Turning the wheel reveals alternating scenes through a circular window, echoing the theatrical effect of a magic lantern show. The internal content presents twelve cautionary tales, adapted in rhymed Dutch verse and illustrated with chromolithographic images.
According to Buijnsters, This Dutch pull-along book, adapted from Raphael Tuck’s Slovenly Peter and Warne’s The Magic Lantern Struwwelpeter, was issued by H. Campagne & Zoon in Amsterdam circa 1897 under the pseudonym “Rosa.” A turntable mounted in the front cover animates the work, following the model of Warne’s 1896 English edition.
The text consists of twelve rhymed cautionary tales rendered in Dutch, several closely echoing Heinrich Hoffmann’s originals while others introduce new episodes. Among the familiar figures are “The Girl with the Matches,” “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Eat,” “The Three Boys and the Inkwell,” and “Tom the Cry-Baby,” while imaginative additions include “Glutton Kees,” a boy who consumes so much chocolate that his body successively turns yellow, brown, and finally becomes entirely chocolate. This mixture of imitation and invention makes the book a distinctive national variation within the international Struwwelpeter tradition.
Though the book itself bears no imprint, bibliographic references confirm this edition was published in Amsterdam by H. Campagne & Zoon and retold by “Rosa,” The book is notable both for its rarity and for its place within the European tradition of movable Struwwelpeter adaptations.
*Movable book expert Theo Gielen (1946–2015) in the Volume 5, Number 3 – September 1997 edition of Movable Stationary talked about this book:
“With the same title of The Magic Lantern Struwwelpeter, Warne and Co. published in 1896 a simplified edition of the earlier book (1890). The moveable part was reduced to only 1 wheel, built in the front cover of the book and showing only 4 pictures of the girl who played with fire; the number of stories included was also reduced to 12. From this edition appeared a Dutch edition with the literally translated title De Tooverlantaarn, published in 1897 by Campagne & Zoon in Amsterdam. At the latest in 1900, but undated, the 8 pages with the embedded wheels known from the 1890 edition, were used again by Warne & Co. for a third version of The Magic Lantern Struwwelpeter. Printed without text this time, the cover reads "Printed and made in Bavaria." There was also the Dutch edition of 'The Magic Lantern', 'De Tooverlantaarn', (J. Vlieger) telling the story of the Dutch equivalent of Slovenly Peter, Piet de Smeerpoes. This Dutch edition has no text, similar to the third English edition published around 1900. But copies of this edition are extremely scarce, as are all these Warne editions.”
This edition is also specifically cited in Lust en Leering: Geschiedenis van het Nederlandse kinderboek in de negentiende eeuw by P.J. Buijnsters and Leontine Buijnsters-Smets (Zwolle: Waanders, 2001), where the authors highlight it as one of only two Dutch movable Struwwelpeters deserving special mention for their ingenuity. Described as “De Tooverlantaarn Struwelpeter by Rosa (Amsterdam, H. Campagne & Zoon, [1897]), with turntable and rhymed text after The Magic Lantern,” it is referenced again as “folio, with turning mechanism” (pp. 29, 55).
The English prototype for this edition, The Magic Lantern Struwwelpeter, was originally issued by Frederick Warne & Co. (London & New York) in 1890, followed by a streamlined version in 1896 which incorporated a single volvelle displaying four scenes. The Dutch version, issued the following year, mirrors this later format and remains an uncommon survival.
The publishing house of Campagne & Zoon, founded in 1818 in Tiel by Cornelis Campagne, earned a reputation for producing high-quality children’s books between 1872 and 1914—many of which featured fine chromolithography and inventive mechanical elements. This legacy was later honored in the Dutch exhibition Het toverkabinet van Campagne Tiel (“The Magic Cabinet of Campagne Tiel”), which celebrated 100 forgotten children’s books from the firm.
In his landmark bibliography Böse Kinder in der Bücherwelt (2019), Reiner Rühle notes the international diversity and technical creativity of Struwwelpetriaden. Rühle explicitly includes this format among the rare “technically interesting” Struwwelpeter variations, remarking:
“Nicht selten wurden künstlerisch aufwendige oder technisch interessante Varianten geschaffen: Struwwelpeter als Puppenbuch, als Theaterkulisse, mit eingebauter Drehbühne, als Laterna-Magica-Vorlage oder in anderen Spielarten.”
(It was not uncommon to find artistically elaborate or technically interesting variants: Struwwelpeter as a doll book, a theater backdrop, with a built-in revolving stage, as a magic-lantern template, or other playful formats.) — Rühle, p. 11
This Dutch edition stands as a prime example of such innovation—a true crossover between storytelling and optical amusement.
Further reading and references:
Buijnsters, P.J. & Buijnsters-Smets, Leontine. Lust en Leering: Geschiedenis van het Nederlandse kinderboek in de negentiende eeuw. Zwolle: Waanders, 2001.
Movable Stationery, Vol. 5, Issue 3 (1997), archive.org: link
Luikerwaal: Children’s Magic Lantern Books
Boekenmuseum.nl: Campagne & Zoon
Rühle, Reiner. Böse Kinder. Kommentierte Bibliographie von Struwwelpetriaden. Osnabrück: Wenner, 1999/2019.
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