[Nuremburg: H. Grevel & Co., circa 1880.]
Folio. 8 chromolithographed plates with accompanying text on the facing page and an arrow in the margins indicating the ivory finial that, when pulled, produces the appropriate animal noise, all bound on top of the miniature bellows contained in the box below. In our copy the tassel linked to the human voices produces a duck quack. Seldom found in completely working order as is this example.
Original red cloth with decorative borders surrounding a mounted colour plate to the upper cover, blind-stamped design to the lower cover, gold painted fore-edge.
320 x 240 mm.
With nine ivory tassels or pulls with strings attached, which when pulled out from the fore-edge or side of the box, produce various sounds: a cock crowling, birds chirping, a donkey bray, a bleat, a moo, a cow, a lamb…
Described by Peter Haining (136) as “the piece de resistance of any collection of movables, or toy-books for that matter“.
Haining “Movable Books“, New English Library, 1979, p. 136.
To date, The Speaking Picture Book remains one of the most technically sophisticated and enchanting mechanical toy-books of the 19th century. This German invention combines vibrant chromolithographed illustrations with hidden bellows and paper reeds that reproduce surprisingly lifelike animal sounds when the attached strings are pulled. The animals featured include a donkey, cock, cow, goat, lambs, birds, and a cuckoo…
The book was produced in Nuremberg by an unknown firm, according to Haining, and as the title page discloses, translated versions were made available in French, Spanish, and as this copy, in English.
The sharp chromolithography of the cover and eight other illustrations are unquestionably German and Bavarian.
This English-language edition was printed in Germany and distributed through the iconic FAO Schwarz toy store in New York. The box features a red cloth binding, a color-illustrated cover, and gold gilt-painted wooden sides.
A very well preserved copy in very good shape.
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