A Visit to the Country: With Surprise Model Pictures – Also Containing Seaside Fun (Movable Book)
London: Dean & Son, 160A Fleet Street, [ca. 1892].
Oblong 4to (31 x 21.5 cm). [10] pp. Quarter blue cloth over illustrated paper-covered boards. Contains two full-page and one double-page movable scene for A Visit to the Country, followed by two additional full-page and one double-page movable for Seaside Fun, all operated via original string mechanisms.
Condition: Good. All movable parts are original, with delicate threads intact and operable. The final movable in Seaside Fun appears to need some structural assistance to fully rise. Binding tight with no loose pages. Cloth spine and board edges show minor wear. Pages clean and well preserved. See photos for condition details.
Description: This rare volume uniquely includes two titles from Dean & Son’s fragile yet ambitious “Surprise Model Picture Book” series. The cover and first half of the book are devoted to A Visit to the Country, which follows upper-class children visiting a country estate, told through letters from young Ethel to her friend Janie. It features three scenes:
A single-page pop-up of a dog and child on a manicured lawn
A central double-page spread of a countryside garden party
A final single-page pop-up featuring children and trees near a grand home
Unusually, Seaside Fun immediately follows, containing three additional scenes:
A single-page seaside pier scene
A central double-spread of Brighton regatta festivities
A final single-page pop-up with boats and a lighthouse
Pop-ups are animated by Dean’s innovative thread-driven mechanism, which uses laterally affixed cotton threads to arc the illustrations outward into rounded, sculptural reliefs. Instructions at the top of each movable page read: “BEFORE OPENING EACH PAGE PLACE THUMBS WHERE MARKED, HOLD FIRMLY AND OPEN WIDE,” with illustrated thumb guides to aid readers.
Note: There are no known advertisements, listings, or institutional holdings that document a dual-title Surprise Model Book from Dean & Son. All known copies list the books separately. In our opinion, it is very unlikely that Dean published this as a single double-book edition. Much more likely is that someone—perhaps even in the 19th or early 20th century—joined two otherwise complete but fragile titles into one conserved volume for preservation or display.
Collectors’ Corner:
As noted in period advertisements, these books were praised for opening “as if by magic” into model relief and collapsing flat upon closure. According to Iona and Peter Opie, the Surprise Model books are among "the most ambitious and fragile of nineteenth-century pop-up books” due to the complexity and delicacy of their thread-based design.
Other Book in this series:
Surprise Model Picture Book (1892)
Freddy and Jack explore a windmill, ride a train, and visit a canal lock in this mechanically ambitious tale. Each spread features layered pop-up scenes with convex movement created by a unique thread mechanism.
A Tale of Old Sugar Tub (1892)
This mischievous adventure follows two boys who hide inside a sugar barrel and are unexpectedly taken away. The model pop-ups use Dean’s lateral string-pull technique to render lively, dimensional scenes.
Seaside Fun with Surprise Model Pictures (1892)
A seaside holiday comes alive with layered scenes of Brighton’s pier, boats, and beach amusements. Narrated in letter form, this story continues the adventures of Ethel, Leonard, and Marjorie, the trio featured across the series.
A Visit to the Country: With Surprise Model Pictures (1892)
See description above
The Surprise Animal Picture Book (1896)
This later title in the series features exotic animals and scenes set in locations such as India and Africa. The mechanism allows certain animals to rise forward from the page, enhancing the sense of three-dimensional realism. Advertisements praised it as a novel idea "successfully carried out" with “many animals… standing right away from the flat picture.”
Note: The Surprise Animal Picture Book (1896), part of Dean’s “2/6 Toy Books” series, was advertised in Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record, no. 211 (1896): 211, as featuring “an entirely new movement.” Through an automatic mechanism, the animals appear to walk out from the illustrations, forming vivid relief scenes and creating the illusion of motion and dimensionality.
Other References:
Carrington, Bridget, and Jennifer Harding, eds. Beyond the Book: Transforming Children’s Literature. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.
Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record of British and Foreign Literature. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., January 6, 1894, 28. Available at Google Books.