Moving paper books from the 1890ies

15 Mar 2006 Category: Features, Graphics, Illustration, Worldwide

Moving paper books from the 1890ies

don't ask me why, but the official English title for this book is: Fun Archade Games

My friend brought back some lovely presents from a trip to Austria. Amongst them this fantastic picture book called: ‘Lustiges Automaten Theatre’ - meaning something like Funny Automatic Theatre. It is a recent re-make of a children book from 1890!

written by Uleshka

Why automatic? Well - this is not a pop-up book but a pull-and-shift book: every page has a little label for you to pull and make the characters and things shown in the illustrations move! 1890ies high tech!

all those parts move individually when pulling a paper label

Can you imagine, what she would do when you pull?

rolling eyes while ironing

To see how they move when pulling the label click on these links:

the dance master
the singer
the photographer
the dumb dog
the sunday hunter
the tailor

One the left pages of the book, you can find very old poems explaining what is happening on the picture on the right side of the book in a - indeed - very funny way. However - I mostly smile about the old-fashioned way to rhyme, the unusual words they use or simply the fact, that they write about such innocent manners in such a stiff way.

poem and picture

Whow - what a different time that must have been, when this kind of humor was suitable for children and adults!

At the end of the 19th century the publishing house J.F. Schreiber (nowadays childen’s books publishers) got famous for their three dimensional or mechanically-moving picture books - throughout the world. Even today, many of these books are still available as “Esslinger Reprints”.

beautiful typography

One of the most popular ones seemes to be Lothar Meggendorfer’s “International Circus”, which was also sold at the bookshops at the Fifth Avenue NY and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (they claim, that people were really crazy about getting hold of a copy of “International Circus”, “The Doll’s House” or “A Day in the Zoo” - now that tells you a little about popular themes at that time).


The Singer

The Sunday Hunter

The Tailor

The Dumb Dog

“Automatic Theatre” was rather a character and mimicry study of Meggendorfer. Countless gesture studies enabled him to come up with this wonderful little movements alive in paper (if I had two copies I would rip one apart and show you how those elements are connected inside, but unfortunately I don’t!).

His best pieces of this book are said to be “Der Tanzmeister” (the dance master), “Der Photograph” (the photographer) and “Der Schneider” (the tailor).

The Photographer

Until 1982 the “Meggendorfer Archive” was to be found in London - but dissolved and spread across the world due to a big big auction. However, there is a museum dedicated to the J.F.Schreiber publishers in the south of Germany.

Lucky you, that I got hold of a reprint and can share it with you here today!

10 Comments

  1. cool colors !Replica Rolex

    Posted by: Flamingo on March 16th, 2006 at 2:01 am

  2. Cool!

    Posted by: Eriksen on March 16th, 2006 at 3:46 am

  3. Beautiful!

    Posted by: Anime Babe on March 16th, 2006 at 3:54 am

  4. Hi, I read Pingmag most every day and I have a request! Please sign your articles so we know who wrote them. I know that you’ve asked for submissions so, these days I always wonder who’s posting…
    Thanks for making such a cool blog! One never knows what will be found here!

    Posted by: Pat on March 16th, 2006 at 11:50 am

  5. Wow, these books are stunning! When I was young, I had books similar like these and it saved me from countless of hours of boredom. (good memories…)Well, I hope one day these books will be famous like it did in the old days! Ta-ta!

    Posted by: Gaby on March 16th, 2006 at 12:27 pm

  6. ups! sorry! forgot to mention…. I wrote that one ;-)

    Posted by: Uleshka on March 16th, 2006 at 12:37 pm

  7. funny ringtones

    Posted by: isq0yct@email.com on July 16th, 2006 at 1:20 am

  8. ringtones free

    Posted by: fhpawfw@google.com on October 26th, 2006 at 10:10 am

  9. [...] It is said that the masterpiece of these kind of books is “Lustiges Automaten-Theater” made by Lothar Meggendorfer (that was already featured earlier in PingMag). The remake of this book has been published for a long time and still people take great delight in reading it. “PAPER FOLDING for Pop-Up” shows how to make a simple pop-up very basic beak looks like a leaf could be a fish tail [...]

    Posted by: PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about "Design and Making Things" » Archive » Welcome to the amazing world of pop-up books! on November 28th, 2006 at 12:23 pm

  10. ups! sorry! forgot to mention…. I wrote that one ;-)

    Posted by: kurye on February 22nd, 2008 at 7:37 am

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