The Speaking Picture Book - rare 10th edition - German
Das Sprechende Bilderbuch - Sonnenberg Theodor Brands Verlag
Rare 10th
edition German Theodor Brand edition. As the 10th edition, this book was probably published around 1889. It is the earliest edition that we have seen come on the market in recent years.
Near fine condition
in original wooden AND original outer protective cardboard box.
With 8 chromolithograph plates, each with an accompanying poem and animal noises operated by pull strings with ivory pulls.
This is the
earliest edition that we have seen come on the market in recent years and the
only one we've seen that still has the original cardboard box. Even more remarkable is the sounds each
bellow makes. Often the sounds have become mere squeaks after 100 + years. This copy
sounds much like each animal from the baby birds to the cow. See video at the bottom of this description to hear the
sounds. It appears that this book has never been slit open to view the bellows - it is still glued tight.
Condition details.
Book/wooden book
box: Everything is near fine and in all original condition with no evidence of
past repairs except for the replacement of one ivory pull with an actual ivory
pull form another speaking picture book. All pulls and bellows are present and
work very well. Pages are excellent with no writing and no tears. Spine is
strong and near fine with only tiny tears at corners. Gold gilding and red
tooled covers remain beautiful.
Outer cardboard
box: A simple box with a black and aged white label that simply says “Speaking
Picture Book”. Box is complete but torn at corners and a bit worn from all of
its years of protecting the treasure inside. See photos.
Collector's Corner:The Speaking Picture Book, is thought to be the earliest interactive sound book.
The Speaking Picture
Book was first produced in Nuremberg, Germany, by publisher
Theodore Brand, the book’s inventor. Brand obtained a German patent for the
book in 1878, and a British patent followed a year later. In addition to the
German edition, English, French and Spanish editions were published.
According to
deadmedia.org, “This Victorian toy,
primitive though it is, is probably still the best synthetic speech toy to
reach the market, and was certainly the predecessor of the Vocoder and of
modern electronic voice synthesizers.”
‘The piece de resistance of
any collection of movables, or toy-books for that matter, is surely The
Speaking Picture Book (c. 1893), an item of such charm and fascination that
even the most blasé modern parents or their children can hardly fail to be captivated
by it. Stored in an ordinary brown cardboard box, this ‘Special Book with
Picture, Rhyme and Sound for Little People’ is a delight to handle,
eye-catching in appearance, and quite remarkably authentic in the sounds it
produces.’
(Peter Haining, Movable Books An Illustrated History,
New English Library Ltd., 1979)