Pleasant Hours (Movable Book)
Schaller & Kirn. Fürth: Schaller & Kirn, [ca. 1883]. First and only edition. Oblong folio (12.5 x 8.2 inches; 31 x 21.5 cm). [5] leaves, each with a full-page hand-colored lithographed scene incorporating a movable mechanism operated by tab.

Binding:
Publisher’s original color-printed pictorial boards backed in red cloth. Light edgewear to boards. Rear board lightly soiled. Binding sound but gatherings are loose, as issued. No restoration.

Content and Description:
A previously unrecorded mechanical picture book by Schaller & Kirn, issued circa 1883. The volume contains five humorous or domestic scenes, each equipped with a functioning or partially functioning paper mechanism. No copies recorded in institutional holdings, and no German-language edition has been located. The title does not appear in standard bibliographies or in the known output of the publisher. A notable survival of an early German movable not previously documented.

Movable scenes include:

1. The Dancer — Tab functions; dancer’s lower left leg is creased. (Video available on request.)

2. The Fisherman — Scene complete; tab present but does not actuate image.

3. Sledding — Mechanism functions; paper tear at edge of tab slot (not affecting image).

4. Sawing — Fully operational; boy’s arm moves in sawing motion.

5. Egg Opening — Scene intact; tab inoperative.

Note: One of the plates includes a racial caricature consistent with 19th-century stereotypes. While typical of its period, such imagery is offensive by modern standards. Included here for historical and bibliographic accuracy.

Condition:
Good. All five movable plates are present, complete, and unrestored. The mechanical elements vary in functionality as detailed above. Loose gatherings. Boards clean and bright with only minor rubbing to edges. A very good example overall, rare in any condition.

Provenance and Rarity:
Quite Scarce. No institutional copies traced in WorldCat, KVK, or the Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog. Not mentioned in Theo Gielen's bibliography of movable books or the standard German trade catalogs.