Les Clowns Au Cirque
Author: Pierre Delcourt
Published by Capendu Editeur, Paris: Librairie Enfantine Illustrée
Printed by G. Löwensohn, Fürth (credit on back cover)
Small 8vo (8.5 x 6.5 inches). Original color lithographed pictorial boards, cloth-backed spine. Comprising 5 unnumbered leaves (including title page). Contains 4 movable chromolithograph plates, each accompanied by French-language verse text printed on the facing page. All movable elements operate via pull-tabs.
Description:
A charming and rare early Capendu movable book featuring circus-themed illustrations. The four interactive scenes include lively clown performances and a woman trainer commanding performing dogs—a scene notable for its dual pull-tab mechanism. Each illustration is paired with a short French rhymed caption.
Condition:
All movable parts are complete and functional. Pages are loose from the binding. There is some tape on the edges, and the final movable has a tear. Please see photos for detailed condition.
Collector's Corner:
This is an early example of Capendu's collaboration with international firms. The back cover credit to G. Löwensohn of Fürth links this book to one of Capendu's known German printing partners. The rare imprint “G. Löwensohn Imp. Fürth” on the back cover is significant. Finding the Löwensohn stamp on international—especially French—movable books remains uncommon, making this specimen notably scarce and highly desirable to collectors of 19th-century paper engineering.
In the mid-19th century.Capendu regularly worked with established names across Europe, including Schreiber and G. Löwensohn in Germany and Dean and Raphael Tuck in England. These cooperative publishing efforts allowed Capendu titles to circulate widely under various imprints, often in multiple languages.
This edition is consistent in format and size with Portraits Comiques en Quatre Tableaux (Paris: A. Capendu, ca. 1890), which also includes four movables. No bibliographic records or institutional holdings for Les Clowns Au Cirque could be found in standard references or searchable online databases, suggesting that this title is extremely scarce.
Note:
No other copies of this edition have been located through institutional catalogs, auction records, or private listings at the time of this writing