THE SPEAKING PICTURE-BOOK FOR THE AMUSEMENT OF CHILDREN IN IMAGE, VERSE AND SOUND.
Theodor Brand, Sonnenberg, Germany, [circa 1880]. First English edition, preserved in an uncommon publisher’s decorative cloth binding.
Large oblong quarto, measuring approximately 32 × 24.5 cm. Bound in the publisher’s original brown cloth, elaborately blocked in black with ornate Victorian decoration and title lettering to the front cover. Unlike the more familiar pictorial-board examples of The Speaking Picture Book, this copy was issued in an elegant cloth binding without an exterior illustration. Mounted to the inside front cover is the original full-color chromolithographed title panel, introducing the work as “A New Picture Book with Characteristical Voices.”
One of the most celebrated and technically sophisticated children’s books of the nineteenth century, The Speaking Picture Book combines chromolithography, verse, and mechanical sound production. The volume contains eight beautifully printed chromolithographed plates, each accompanied by verse and operated by a pull-string bellows mechanism designed to reproduce characteristic human and animal sounds. Subjects include the cuckoo, rooster, goat, cow, dog, baby birds, cat, lamb, and the voices of mother and child.
The decorative title page preserves Theodor Brand’s “TB” monogram and bears the original international patent notices:
Patent: London 31.VII.79 No. 3114 — Washington 30.XII.79 No. 223108
These represent the British patent granted on July 31, 1879, and the United States patent granted on December 30, 1879.
Notably, the title page bears only Brand's distinctive "TB" monogram and contains no publisher or distributor imprint. While unusual for a Victorian English-language children's book, this feature is consistent with the possibility that the volume was produced directly by Theodor Brand in Germany for export to the English-speaking market, rather than through a later English distributor. The prominent display of both the British and United States patent notices further suggests that this edition was issued very close to the original commercialization of Brand's invention and belongs to the earliest phase of its international distribution.
Condition: Near Fine. Seven pull mechanisms are present and fully functional, producing remarkably clear and well-preserved sounds. One pull-string is lacking, and one additional pull-string remains present but no longer produces sound. The chromolithographed plates remain clean and bright throughout, with no writing, foxing, or tears. Spine and hinges are sound, with only minor wear to the extremities. An exceptional surviving example of one of the rarest and most desirable nineteenth-century mechanical children’s books.
Collector's Corner:
The Speaking Picture Book is thought to be the earliest interactive sound book. Originally known in German as Das Sprechende Bilderbuch), it was a celebrated 19th-century interactive children's book invented by the German publisher Theodor Friedrich Otto Brand. It is widely considered the precursor to the modern talking book.
The Speaking Picture Book was printed in Germany and issued in English, French, Spanish, and German editions. American versions were famously retailed by FAO Schwarz, while later UK English-language editions were distributed by H. Grevel & Co., London.
Learn more about this remarkable series with our research by Jo Tisinger: https://www.vintagepopupbooks.com/category-s/1901.htm
Other editions on this website:
Almost all SPB's seen on the market are without their original cardboard or wooden case.
Vintagepopupbooks.com has one of each - with its cardboard box and its wooden box available to view on this site.
To see our offering with the original wooden box see out other book listings
The ad copy below is from Perry & Co's monthly illustrated price current Volume 15, 1882 page 141
THE SPEAKING PICTURE BOOK.
Combination of a Picture Book with Human and Animal Sounds.
The aim of the editors of this new book is besides amusement, an educational one for primal age.
Free from surfeit, which is misleading the eye of the child, from wit and caricature, still alien to the understanding of the same. This Picture Book is to present a collection of dialogues between father, mother, bird, and animal, both instructive and entertaining for children and amusing for the adult. May therefore this Picture Book find use in many families, and prove to be their constant friend and play-fellow.
In Elegant Wooden Case, with Lock ... Per doz. 153/-
Cardboard Case ............................. 132/-
Learn more in our in-depth research article on this site detailing the historical background of The Speaking Picture Book.
Quick Bio:
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)