Bradford, Sarah H. (Sarah Hopkins), 1818–1912.
Grandma’s Search, or Tommy Lost and Found. Dresden: Blochmann, November 1869. First edition. Quarto (9 × 7 in.; 23 × 18 cm). [11] unnumbered pp. with 8 leaves of chromolithographed plates containing movable lift-the-flap elements. Illustrations by E. E. Assmann, lithographed by Rau & Sohn after Assmann’s designs. Printed by Blochmann; bound by Th. Sellig & Sohn. Issued without publisher’s imprint (s.n.).
Condition: Very Good. Every movable plate present and in fine working order, free of tears or writing. Binding good, though some pages loose. Text block on excellent paper stock, though one non-movable story leaf is lacking. Boards lightly worn and browned consistent with age. The front endpaper bears a contemporary presentation inscription in neat script, “Elizabeth from Aunt Phoebe, Sept. 26, 1870.”
Description: One of the earliest known German-produced movable flap books, combining Sarah H. Bradford’s text with E. E. Assmann’s designs. Each full-page illustration shows the grandmother searching for her lost grandson, Tommy; lifting the flap reveals what lies hidden in cupboards, boxes, or under furniture, until the child is ultimately found. Chromolithography by Rau & Sohn offers vivid color and fine detail, with Blochmann’s Dresden presswork and Sellig’s binding representative of the collaborative 19th-century German book trades.
Collector’s Corner:
Grandma’s Search is a significant example of early movable book production in Germany, representing the transition from moralizing children’s narratives to mechanically interactive picture books. Bradford, best remembered for her biographies of Harriet Tubman, here provides a domestic cautionary tale reimagined through the novelty of flap mechanics. The collaboration of Assmann and Rau & Sohn situates the book within the flowering of Dresden chromolithography in the 1860s, when German presses were pioneering color printing for the children’s market.
The only other known physical copy of this book
resides in the highly revered “Emily Dickinson Collection” at the Houghton Library,
Harvard College - Emily Dickinson Room. (The Houghton Library is renowned
internationally for its holdings of nineteenth-century American writers, and
many would say that the jewel in that crown is the Emily Dickinson Collection. The
collection comprises most of the poet’s personal papers and manuscripts, and
the entire family library as it was at her death. The copy at Harvard is
inscribed to her niece Mattie.)
The creator of this book - Sarah Hopkins Bradford (1818-1912)- was most famously know for her biography of Harriett Tubman. She met Tubman's family at church during the Civil War and was later chosen as the official biographer. She is responsible for Tubman's nickname - "The Black Moses"
This book appears to be this important writers only movable child's book. A collector was kind enough to email with this update: Sarah did not totally write text - she actually translated text (loosely) from an older German book of the same title/story.
Sarah Bradford also ran a school for "young ladies and little girls" out of her home in the United States until moving to Germany in 1869 where she published this book.