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Sold - Antique Movable Flap Book McLoughlin Brothers : Beauty and The Beast; New York: McLoughlin Brothers [n.d. ca. 1891]

Antique Movable Book PANTOMIME TOY BOOKS


 
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PANTOMIME TOY BOOKS: Beauty and The Beast; New York: McLoughlin Brothers [n.d. ca. 1891 or later]

McLoughlin, patented 1891 - Stiff pictorial wraps, shaped by proscenium arch above and orchestra pit below. Inside are six chromolithograph half pages on heavy paper on each side.

11.5" tall, 10" wide

Condition - Very Good - Well bound and complete. See photos for slight paper loss

All books returnable within 10 days of receipt if not delighted for any reason!

Questions! Contact us at [email protected]



Collectors Corner:

McLoughlin pirated Dean's Home Pantomime Toy Books (published in the 1870’s) for the American market. The first ones Mcloughlin published using this inside theater flap format were issued in 1883. In 1891 they published the first shaped theater flap books such as this one.

Designed for the whole family, the backs of each flap of the shaped books depict Mother/Father/Children on one side and Grandma/children on the other sitting in their box seats and watching the show.

There were not as many titles in this shaped series as in the earlier Mcloughlin theater books. McLoughlin published at least three other stories in this shaped format: Cinderella, Robinson Crusoe, and Little Red Riding Hood. These theater-shaped books were patented in 1891 by McLoughlin. Also called “proscenium format.” And Pantomime Toy Book


From The American Stationer, Volume 30, Howard Lockwood, 1891 – page 982:





These books are most eloquently described by Mcloughlin themselves in The American Bookseller: A Semi-monthly Journal Devoted to the Interests of the Book, Stationery, News, and Music Trades, Volume 30 American News Company, 1891, page 295:

Pantomime Toy-books. A new thing in the toy-book line is this device of making the leaves of the book resemble the scenes on a stage. The front of each, when the book is closed, represents the proscenium arch of a theatre, with curtain, footlights, and the orchestra as if in the act of playing an overture. The cover and the different pages are divided down the centre, and as they are lifted, one after the other, fold back to each side, disclosing the stage, and, upon it, a series of tableaux representing scenes in the story, which is told in verses below. On the backs of the covers and the pages, tiers of boxes are depicted, so that, when a book is opened at any page, the whole presents the appearance of a theatre in a strikingly realistic manner. The pictures, in design and coloring, have the beauty and brilliancy characteristic of all our work, and the peculiar form sets them off to unusual advantage.

About McLoughlin Brothers:

McLoughlin Bros was a New York publisher of books, puzzles, games and paper dolls. Savvy about modern marketing and production, McLoughlin was able to pirate and copyright titles by greats such as Schreiber and Dean & Son for the American market as well as produce their own originals. They were in business from 1828 until 1920 when they were bought out by Milton Bradley, Inc. Milton Bradley continued to use the brand “Mcloughlin brothers”, including the 1930’s 40’s series of pop-up books - "Jolly Jump-Ups" - The McLoughlin division of Milton Bradley shut down during World War II. In 1951, the McLoughlin Bros. brand was bought by New York toy manufacturer Julius Kushner. Some of the the Jolly Jump-Ups were reissued at that time. The imprint was finally sold to Grosset & Dunlap in 1954. Several more Mcloughlin books were issued, but we ceased seeing the imprint by the 1970s.

$225.00



Product Code: SOLD---A-55
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