Lothar Meggendorfer
Always Jolly. A Movable Toybook, (c. 1891)
London: H. Grevel & Co.
308
Further images
Quarto. (9)ff. Eight hand-colored illustrations, show scenes made startingly lifelike by the pull of a tab, which raises an elephant's tusk, draws up an angler and his fish, drops the...
Quarto. (9)ff. Eight hand-colored illustrations, show scenes made startingly lifelike by the pull of a tab, which raises an elephant's tusk, draws up an angler and his fish, drops the net of a naturalist, and sets the hands of a pianist to play. Although several of these movable images appeared in other titles, this exact arrangement of scenes has no German equivalent in Meggendorfer's oeuvre. Each mechanism is complex -relying on a clever system of coiled rivets and paper levers within each movable plate - and for that reason it is all the more amazing to find each one entirely functional. Each scene is at a recto with a descriptive poem at the facing verso. An achievement of paper engineering, bound in pictorial boards backed in black cloth. Edges show modest loss, professional repair to foot of spine, front hinge, and several smaller movable elements of each tableau, else very good.
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