LA GRANDE MÉNAGERIE. [Théâtre miniature].

Very rare and superb book with movable parts forming a miniature theater, adorned with 6 folding compositions in pierced panels representing different scenes of a ménagerie.
Not mentioned by Gumuchian.

Extremely rare work of the relief picture-book type (or unfolding book).
It is based on a publication by the publisher J. F. Schreiber in Esslingen (the text of the first plate still bears the mention “J. F. Schreiber, Esslingen”), but was adapted and translated for the French market.

Although the title indicates that it is the fourth volume of a six-part series titled “Théâtre miniature”, our research in Worldcat only allowed us to find this single volume, and known from only two copies: one kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the other at Princeton (“extensively restored, the pages and plates cut out and mounted on a new support”).

The folding plates depict the following scenes:
• The Dompteuse,
• The Aquarium,
• The Reptiles,
• The Fierce Animals,
• The Learned Elephant,
• The Monkeys.

This book is remarkable from a cultural point of view because it presents one of the earliest representations of an aquarium.

The scenes show the animals already arranged in a solid architecture of zoological gardens, which were spreading at the time.

Copy in very fine condition for a work of this type, nonetheless published for children and generally heavily used. The 6 miniature unfolding theaters are in perfect condition and show no losses, including the aquarium window which has remained intact.