A rare and unusually well-preserved Continental scenic movable, important as an early Dutch adaptation of the celebrated Dean & Son scenic books
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[Belinfante, Gebroeders.]
Belinfante’s Nieuwe Prentenboeken – Robinson Crusoe
Dutch Edition of Dean’s New Scenic Books No. 2
S. Gravenhage: Gebroeders Belinfante, [n.d., ca. 1860s
Quarto (25.4 × 17.5 cm). Original quarter blue cloth with hand-colored pictorial paper-covered boards. Eight leaves, each containing a hand-colored lithographed three-layer scenic movable activated by silk ribbon pulls.
The movable elements are operated by silk ribbons designed to raise the illustrated backgrounds into upright scenic displays. The illustrations depict key episodes from the life of Robinson Crusoe.
This rare Dutch adaptation of Dean & Son’s New Scenic Books series—specifically No. 2, Robinson Crusoe—was issued by Gebroeders Belinfante of The Hague. The format and mechanism closely mirror the English originals, employing hand-colored lithography and layered scenic tableaux characteristic of Dean’s celebrated ribbon-operated scenic books.
Condition: Very Good. All eight scenic pop-ups are present and complete, with bright hand-coloring and full functionality. All original components are intact except for the ribbon on the first scene, which is broken but potentially restorable. Some of the ribbons have been professionally replaced to restore working order. The endpapers have been expertly repaired, and the binding is sound. A collector’s stamp appears on the rear board: “Sammlung Inge Hase.”
This is a well-preserved and fully operational example of a scarce Continental movable book, notable both for its adaptation of a Dean & Son design and its survival in working condition.
All books are sold on approval with a full refund if not delighted for any reason.
Collector's Corner (publisher history):
The Gebroeders (Brothers) Belinfante, played a significant role in Dutch publishing.
The
Gebroeders Belinfante, the firm responsible for publishing Belinfante's Nieuwe Prentenboeken series in 1865, operated in The Hague and became known for producing educational and entertaining children’s books. If you see “’s-Gravenhage” in reference to a publisher’s location or in the publication details of a historical Dutch book, it simply indicates that the book was published in The Hague.
Others in their series: Roodkapje (Dutch edition of Little Red Riding Hood New Scenic Books by Dean, circa 1865 - Similar to Robinson Crusoë, Roodkapje features cut-out, hand-colored lithographic illustrations that stand upright, making it an interactive experience for readers -.
Wouter Wonderman's Wondervolle Surprises (circa 1865 - This book differs from the other titles by being a flip-over book with eight pages. Each page has fold-out flaps that reveal new scenes, making it a "surprise" book with multiple interactive elements.
How Gebroeders Belinfante Likely Adapted Dean & Son Titles: Dutch Copyright Law in the 19th Century During much of the nineteenth century, Dutch copyright law operated under the Auteurswet of 1817, which protected only Dutch authors, translators, and publishers. Foreign authors and publishers—including those in Britain—received virtually no legal protection within the Netherlands. As a result, English, French, and German works could be translated, adapted, reproduced, and sold in Dutch editions without formal licensing agreements or royalty payments. This legal environment created a flourishing trade in translated and adapted foreign literature, including illustrated children’s books, scenic books, and movable novelties. Within this context, publishers such as Gebroeders Belinfante of ’s-Gravenhage (The Hague) issued Dutch editions modeled on popular English publications. Among the most notable were adaptations of Dean & Son’s celebrated New Scenic Books series, including the ribbon-operated Robinson Crusoe scenic movable. The Dutch edition closely follows the format and mechanical structure of the English original, employing layered scenic tableaux activated by silk ribbons and hand-colored lithographed illustrations. Such editions demonstrate how British movable-book innovations circulated internationally through loosely regulated publishing networks long before modern international copyright enforcement. The Belinfante adaptation of Robinson Crusoe was not an isolated case but part of a broader nineteenth century Dutch publishing culture in which foreign juvenile literature was routinely localized for domestic audiences. Movable books, panoramas, scenic books, and novelty publications circulated through the same international trade systems that enabled widespread Dutch translation and adaptation of English literary works. One of the most revealing episodes connected to this publishing environment occurred in 1869, when Gebroeders Belinfante contacted the London publishers Cassell, Petter & Galpin seeking permission to reproduce illustrations from Wilkie Collins’s novel Man and Wife while making no attempt to secure formal translation rights. Collins, already frustrated by the widespread Dutch reprinting of English works, publicly mocked the publishers as his “dear Dutchmen” in correspondence later published in The Echo and subsequently discussed internationally, including in Harper’s Weekly. Collins condemned Dutch copyright practices as morally indefensible despite their technical legality under Dutch law. The controversy produced an unexpected historical milestone. Gebroeders Belinfante ultimately paid Collins 100 guilders for authorization to issue the translation—widely regarded as the first known payment by a Dutch publisher to a foreign author specifically for translation rights. Although Dutch law did not require such payment, the episode marked an early voluntary recognition of an author’s moral and financial claims beyond national copyright boundaries. The significance of the Collins-Belinfante arrangement extended beyond a single publication. In subsequent years, Gebroeders Belinfante became the principal Dutch publisher of authorized Collins translations. The episode also influenced broader Dutch publishing practices. In 1878, the Vereeniging ter Bevordering van de Belangen des Boekhandels (VBBB), the principal Dutch booksellers’ association, revised its internal regulations to recognize translation claims supported not only by possession of the original text but also by proof of payment to foreign authors. Although the Netherlands did not formally join the Berne Convention until 1912, these developments signaled a gradual shift away from unrestricted foreign reprinting toward negotiated literary rights and ethical licensing practices. The free adaptation culture that had enabled Dutch editions of Dean & Son movables gradually disappeared as international copyright agreements expanded during the late nineteenth century. Bilateral treaties with France, Belgium, and Spain began restricting unauthorized reproductions, and the establishment of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in 1886 ultimately transformed international publishing practices. When the Netherlands formally joined the Berne Convention in 1912, Dutch publishers became legally obligated to obtain permission and pay royalties for foreign translations and adaptations, effectively ending the era in which publishers such as Belinfante could freely reproduce English illustrated books for the Dutch market. The Belinfante edition of Robinson Crusoe therefore survives as more than a rare Dutch movable book. It represents a transitional moment in European publishing history when international literary exchange, evolving copyright ethics, and the growing popularity of movable and scenic books intersected in a rapidly changing commercial environment.
Publisher History:
The publishing house associated with Gebroeders Belinfante originated with the distinguished Sephardic Jewish Belinfante family of The Hague, whose ancestry extended through Portugal, Italy, and the Ottoman world. By the mid-eighteenth century, members of the Belinfante family had become firmly established in The Hague, where they emerged as influential participants in Dutch intellectual, commercial, religious, journalistic, and civic life.
The actual founders of the publishing enterprise were the brothers Moses Cohen Belinfante (1761–1821) and Jacob Cohen Belinfante (ca. 1780–1841), who established the firm around 1802–1804 during the reign of King Louis Napoleon. Their earliest activities centered on governmental and official state printing, followed by legal, educational, literary, and commercial publications. The firm quickly developed a reputation for scholarly and administrative reliability at a time when Dutch publishing was rapidly expanding under Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic reforms.
Figure: Silhouette portrait of Moses Cohen Belinfante, ca. 1806–1810. Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam, via Wikimedia Commons
The Belinfante family also occupied an important place in Dutch Jewish intellectual history. In 1806, Moses Cohen Belinfante founded Sulamith, generally regarded as the first Jewish periodical published in the Netherlands. The publication represented a landmark moment in Dutch Jewish journalism and reflected the family’s broader commitment to literary culture, scholarship, and public discourse. Over the course of the nineteenth century, various members of the family became active as printers, booksellers, editors, journalists, translators, attorneys, and publishers.
The second generation significantly expanded the family’s influence. Joseph Justus Belinfante (1813–1882), son of Jacob Cohen Belinfante, became one of the most visible literary and journalistic figures associated with the firm. Fluent in both French and Dutch, he began his career as a proofreader before developing a reputation for editorial precision, linguistic skill, and historical scholarship. He contributed to important Dutch publications including the Algemeen Handelsblad and legal journals such as Weekblad van het Regt, while simultaneously helping oversee the family’s expanding publishing interests. His brother Isaac Belinfante (1815–1892) likewise played an important role within the family enterprise and associated journalistic activities.
Alongside their publishing work, the Belinfantes also operated the influential Nederlandsch Correspondentiebureau voor Dagbladen, one of the most important Dutch news and correspondence agencies of the nineteenth century and a precursor to later national press organizations. Through this network, the family exerted considerable influence on the circulation of news and political reporting throughout the Netherlands. Their involvement in journalism, legal publishing, and governmental printing helped establish the Belinfante name as one of the most respected publishing and information enterprises in The Hague during the nineteenth century.
Under the Belinfante imprint, the firm issued governmental publications, jurisprudence texts, educational works, literary translations, illustrated children’s books, and adaptations of foreign juvenile literature. Although legal and governmental printing remained the core of the enterprise, the family also participated actively in the nineteenth century trade in illustrated and movable books. Among the most notable examples were Dutch scenic editions derived from English publishers such as Dean & Son, including ribbon-operated scenic books and movable juvenile titles adapted for the Dutch market during a period when international copyright protections remained weak within the Netherlands.
This environment enabled Dutch publishers to translate and adapt foreign works with relatively little legal restriction prior to the Netherlands joining the Berne Convention in 1912. The Belinfante firm became associated with one of the most important copyright controversies of the nineteenth century when it entered into correspondence with the English novelist Wilkie Collins concerning Dutch translations of Man and Wife in 1869. The dispute ultimately resulted in the payment of 100 guilders to Collins—widely regarded as the first known payment by a Dutch publisher to a foreign author specifically for translation rights. The episode marked a significant turning point in Dutch publishing ethics and international copyright practice.
Joseph Justus Belinfante and his wife Bilha Lobato (1804–1880) had no children, though he remained closely connected to the broader Belinfante family network and was affectionately known as “Oom Joost” (“Uncle Justus”) among relatives. Later generations continued the publishing, bookselling, legal, and journalistic enterprises well into the twentieth century. Figures such as August Belinfante (1841–1921), associated with the bookselling operations of the firm, and George Belinfante (1837–1888), a lawyer, editor, and journalist connected to Dutch legal publishing, helped continue the family’s cultural and intellectual influence. In 1902, the enterprise was formally incorporated as N.V. Gebr. Belinfante.
The history of the Belinfante family during the Second World War stands in stark contrast to the firm’s earlier prominence in Dutch cultural, intellectual, and publishing life. For more than a century, generations of the family had contributed to journalism, literature, legal publishing, bookselling, scholarship, and civic life in The Hague. Following the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, however, the same family that had helped shape Dutch publishing history became subject to the anti-Jewish decrees, exclusions, confiscations, and deportations imposed under Nazi rule.
Holocaust memorial records document numerous Belinfante family members who were deported and murdered in camps including Auschwitz and Sobibor. Among them were Hendrik Joseph Belinfante, associated with the family’s printing and bookselling business, and the noted journalist Emmy Belinfante. The occupation devastated not only individual lives, but also the broader cultural and intellectual network the family had spent generations building. Although the Belinfante name survived afterward in legal and publishing contexts, the original nineteenth century family publishing dynasty never fully recovered from the destruction of the Holocaust..
References:“Belinfante.” Akevoth Archive of Dutch Jewry Accessed February 7, 2025. Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. “Convention of 1886, as Revised in 1912.” World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Buijnsters, P. J. Lust en Leering: Geschiedenis van het Nederlandse Kinderboek in de Negentiende Eeuw. Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2001. Digital edition, Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren (DBNL). DBNL “Collins and His Publishers.” Wilkie Collins Info “Joodsch Monument.” Joods Monument
(Holocaust records relating to members of the Belinfante family.) Peschier, D. “Wilkie Collins and His ‘Dear Dutchmen’: Collins in the Netherlands.” Wilkie Collins Society Journal, August 1998. Wilkie Collins Society Peters, Catherine. The King of Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins. London: Secker & Warburg, 1991. Robinson, Kenneth. Wilkie Collins: A Biography. London: Bodley Head, 1951. Rutgers, Wim. Geschiedenis van het auteursrecht in Nederland 1817–1912. Amsterdam: Stichting Auteursrechtbelangen, 1981. Stumpel, Jeroen. “Copyright in the Netherlands.” In The Netherlands and Copyright Law: An Introduction, edited by Paul Aertsen, 15–34. Amsterdam: Stichting Recht en Publiciteit, 2001. Van Winden, P. J. M. “Wilkie Collins and His ‘Dear Dutchmen.’” Wilkie Collins Society Journal, June 1998. Wilkie Collins Society “Wilkie Collins and His Dear Dutchmen.” Wilkie Collins Society PDF Archive “‘A National Wrong.’” Wilkie Collins Society PDF Archive “Belinfante Family.” Jewish Encyclopedia “Belinfante, Moses ben-Zaddik ha-Kohen.” Jewish Encyclopedia “Familie Belinfante: gezichtsbepalend voor de journalistiek in Nederland.” Joods Erfgoed Den Haag “Joseph Justus Belinfante.” Angkor Database
Product Code: D-13B
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