Svine-drengen (movable flaps).
Illus. Carl Røgind. Copenhagen: Carl Larsens Forlag, [1907]. Alfred Jacobsens Danske Billedbøger, vol. 266.
Softcover. 8 pp. plus 4 half-page movable flaps.
Danish movable picture book employing four half-page flaps to create changing illustrated scenes. Although often miscataloged as an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Pig Boy, contemporary scholarship shows the text derives instead from an older folk-tale tradition related to Graaben and the German Kong Drosselbart, with the narrative secondary to the visual presentation. Undated, but attributed to 1907 by Google Books and signed in the printing “Carl Røgind ’07.” An uncommon half-page movable variant within Alfred Jacobsen’s long-running Danske Billedbøger series. One of only two such movable titles currently identified in the series.
Fine. Exceptionally well preserved. Tightly bound and complete. No tears, repairs, tape, writing, or foxing. Slight edgewear on cover.
We are also including a nice copy of Alfred Jacobsen's Danish Picture Books No. 4 "Hans og Grete" with illustrations by Louis Moe.
Collector’s Corner:
The authorship of this title is frequently miscataloged as Hans Christian Andersen, largely because many volumes in Alfred Jacobsen’s Danske Billedbøger series do adapt Andersen fairy tales. However, Svine-drengen (1907) is not based on Andersen’s story. Contemporary scholarship shows that its text derives instead from an older folk-tale tradition related to the Danish Graaben and the German Kong Drosselbart. In this book, the narrative is secondary to the illustrations and, crucially, to the half-page movable format, which allows scenes to be recombined. Among the hundreds of titles issued in the Danske Billedbøger series, research has identified only one other half-page movable example, Rødhætte (1905)*.
What makes this title especially compelling to collectors is its cultural and historical context. Alfred Jacobsen launched the Danske Billedbøger series in 1890 as a deliberate alternative to the flood of imported German picture books that dominated the Danish market in the late nineteenth century. As Jacobsen himself stated, his aim was to counter “the masses of inferior picture books that are brought into our country each year, and which serve only to destroy children’s taste and understanding.” The series was conceived to provide Danish pictures for Danish children—locally produced, culturally grounded, and visually engaging.
Against this backdrop, the appearance of a movable picture book within the series is particularly striking. Scandinavian movable books are far scarcer than their German, English, or French counterparts, and Jacobsen’s publishing output was typically standardized and economical. The decision to issue Svine-drengen with interactive half-page flaps represents a rare moment of experimentation within a firmly national and didactic publishing program. The result is a book that not only stands apart within the Danske Billedbøger series but also holds its own as an early Nordic contribution to the history of movable books.
Jacobsen’s picture sheets achieved recognition beyond Denmark and were listed in foreign catalogues. His identifying trademark was a small Danish flag accompanied by a pen and a paintbrush. He hoped that his picture books, like his Danish Pictures, would gain public support and help curb the continued import and spread of German mass-produced material. The Danish children’s author Anna Erslev praised Jacobsen, stating that with his Danske Billedbøger "he had crushed the corresponding German monstrosities with Danish text set in Denmark and full of the finest language flourishes". Writing in the 1940s, museum curator Kai Uldall echoed this esteem, observing: “What Alfred Jacobsen has meant for Danish children from 1880 and well into this century deserves a wreath of honor. H. C. Andersen and Alfred Jacobsen have each, in their own way, meant the most to me in my childhood.”
Jacobsen’s mission statement for the series survives in a contemporary trade advertisement published in Nordisk boghandlertidende, vol. 25 (1891), p. 179, where he announced his intention to unite strong illustrations with sound text at affordable prices, using original Danish artwork printed at his own lithographic establishment, and to resist the further spread of German mass-produced picture books.
Alfred Martin Møller Jacobsen (1853–1924) was a Danish lithographic art printer and publisher whose activities extended far beyond picture books. Trained in the art press, he established his own lithographic institution in Copenhagen in 1874 and became the most significant publisher of toy (paper) theatre sheets in Denmark. His paper theatres—intended for cutting, assembly, and domestic performance—place him at the center of Scandinavian paper performance culture. The half-page movable format used in Svine-drengen reflects this broader engagement with paper theatre logic: changeable scenes, recombined imagery, and visual storytelling translated into book form. The Danske Billedbøger series itself was highly successful and culturally significant, running to hundreds of numbered titles (at least 266 by 1907) and remaining in production well into the twentieth century.
Jacobsen’s business was later continued by Vilh. Priors kgl. Hofboghandel, now operating as a mail-order bookshop, and in recent years the magazine Oldfux has issued reprints of rare and out-of-print sheets from this tradition.
The illustrations for Svine-drengen were created by Carl Frederik Lobech Røgind (1871–1933) was a Danish illustrator, cartoonist, and drawing teacher, best known for his humorous, burlesque drawing style and his contributions to early Scandinavian comics and children’s illustration. From 1901 onward, Røgind worked as a drawing instructor in the Copenhagen school system, later teaching at Sundbyøster School on Amager, where he remained until his death on 9 November 1933. Alongside his teaching career, he was a prolific contributor to Danish humor magazines.In addition to his periodical work, he designed model theaters and fairy-tale cutouts and illustrated children’s books, including Hulbogen (1916), and collaborated with publishers such as Alfred Jacobsen and Allers Etablissement. Røgind is believed to have drawn some of the earliest Danish artist-designed postcards (often called kartonkort) that were widely circulated. His postcards were produced over many years, from the late 1890s up until his death in 1933.
The image below was published as a trade announcement in Nordisk boghandlertidende, vol. 25, edited by Otto Herman Delbanco, E. Jespersen, and J. L. Lybecker, 1891, p. 179:
English translation:
Announcement
In view of the fact that the masses of inferior picture books that are brought into our country each year, and which serve only to destroy children’s taste and understanding, have for a long time prompted the undersigned to prepare a new series of
Danske Billedbøger (Danish Picture Books)
The task of the publisher shall be to bring good illustrations together with well-chosen text in picture books at various prices, from 10 øre to 1 krone. All illustrations are executed either after original drawings by Danish artists or reproduced and printed in the publisher’s own lithographic establishment.
I hope that these picture books, in the same degree as my Danish Pictures, may win public support and make further importation and dissemination of German mass-produced goods impossible.
Edited by Alfred Jacobsen.
Lithographer.
References:
Alfred Jacobsens Danske Billeder – Historie, Billedark.dk, accessed January 12,2026, https://billedark.dk/historie.htm
“Tegneseriemuseet – Danish Comic History.” Den danske tegneserietradition, https://www.desahjn.dk/Tegneserier/Tegneseriemuseet.dk/dkhist/dkhist.htm
Garde, Georg. Theatergeschichte im Spiegel der Kindertheater [Theatre History Reflected in Children’s Theatre]. Copenhagen, 1971.
“Alfred Jacobsen,” World Encyclopaedia of Puppetry Arts, Unima International, accessed january 12,2026, https://wepa.unima.org/en/alfred-jacobsen
Alfred Jacobsens Danske Billeder [Alfred Jacobsen’s Danish Pictures]. Intro. Ib Varnild. Copenhagen: Høst & Søn, 1974.
Rundetaarn, Viden om MAGASIN, 1993, p.62, quoting Alfred Jacobsen on his purpose in publishing Danske Billedbøger — “de Masser af slette Billedbøger, som aarlig tilføres vort Land, og som kun ødelægger Børnenes Smag og Forstaaelse.”
Stybe, Vibeke. Fra billedark til billedbog: Den illustrerede børnebog i Danmark indtil 1950. Copenhagen: Lindhardt og Ringhof, 2022.
(*The identification of Svine-drengen (1907) and Rødhætte (1905) as the only titles in the series using half-pages comes from this book. It is a comprehensive history of illustrated children’s books in Denmark through 1950, tracing picture books from their earliest visual forms (billedark) onward. Vibeke Stybe was a noted Danish children’s literature researcher and librarian. tracing picture books from their earliest visual forms (billedark) onward. Vibeke Stybe was a noted Danish children’s literature researcher and librarian.)