MEGGENDORFER, Lothar

Nah und Fern [Near and Far]

Munich: Verlag von Braun & Schneider, 1887. Item #06071

Eight Pulls — and 139 Years Later They Still Work
A Remarkably Well-Preserved First Edition of Meggendorfer’s Nah und Fern

[MOVABLE BOOK]. MEGGENDORFER, Lothar. Nah und Fern. Ein Tierbilderbuch zum Ziehen von L. Meggendorfer. [Near and Far. A Movable Animal Picture Book]. München: Verlag von Braun & Schneider, n.d. [1887].

First edition. Tall quarto (12 x 9 1/8 inches; 303 x 230 mm.). Foreword and eight bright and vivid color-lithographed movable plates, each operated by a pull-tab and accompanied by text.

Publisher’s original color pictorial boards, lightly rubbed. Inner hinges professionally strengthened. All eight movable mechanisms complete and fully functional. An excellent copy of an exceptionally vulnerable nineteenth-century movable book.

The eight movable scenes comprise:

Der Löwe — The Lion
Die Schwäne — The Swans
Die Giraffe — The Giraffe
Das Kalb — The Calf
Der Papagei — The Parrot
Das Kamel — The Camel
Die beiden Schweinchen — The Two Little Pigs
Der Elefant — The Elephant

An exceptionally scarce example of one of Lothar Meggendorfer’s celebrated mechanical picture books, published in 1887 during the period in which he was transforming the movable book from a relatively simple novelty into an extraordinarily ingenious form of paper engineering.

A contemporary advertisement issued by Braun & Schneider in 1887 announced Nah und Fern as the newly published ninth volume in its series of Meggendorfer movable books, praising the amusing and remarkably lifelike movements of its pictures.

The ingenuity of those movements can still be experienced in the present copy. Pulling a single cardboard tab may simultaneously alter several elements of a scene: the lion changes his attitude; the giraffe raises its long neck from the water; animals and human figures spring into action; and the elephant performs perhaps the most spectacular transformation of all. Behind each colored image lies a concealed system of interconnected paper and cardboard levers that translates one simple pull into a surprisingly complex sequence of movements.

Meggendorfer designed the pictorial and mechanical elements of his books himself. Working initially in pen and watercolor, he constructed models of the mechanisms before the designs were transferred to lithographic stones and prepared for color printing. His achievement lay not simply in illustrating a scene but in imagining how an apparently static picture might suddenly come alive.

As Justin G. Schiller observed, Meggendorfer’s modern reputation rests principally upon these ingenious mechanical picture books. Beginning in earnest during the 1880s, he produced an astonishing variety of movable constructions: pull-tab figures, transformations, pop-ups, rotating wheels, changing slat pictures, and other forms of paper engineering. His books appeared in numerous German editions and were translated for an international audience.

Peter Haining similarly regarded Meggendorfer’s productions as among the most elaborate and ingenious movable books ever made. Their characteristic construction employed interconnected cardboard levers concealed between the colored illustration and a backing sheet. Cut-out heads, limbs, tails, and other elements were attached to these mechanisms so that the movement of a single tab could animate an entire scene.

Nah und Fern is an especially attractive demonstration of this technique. Its subject matter gave Meggendorfer abundant opportunities for comic movement: a lion, swans, giraffe, calf, parrot, camel, pigs, and elephant are transformed from apparently static illustrations into miniature performances. An English adaptation, From Far and Near: A Movable Toybook, appeared circa 1890. Significantly, it was not simply a translation. Although it retained the cover design, introduction, and the Swan, Parrot, and Camel plates from Nah und Fern, five of the original German scenes were replaced with newly designed subjects.

The survival of any Meggendorfer movable book in substantially complete condition is notable. These were books expressly designed to be handled: tabs were pulled repeatedly, projecting pieces bent or torn, and the complicated internal paper mechanisms inevitably became detached or ceased to function. Copies encountered today consequently frequently contain damaged, repaired, replaced, or entirely inoperative mechanisms.

The present copy is therefore particularly desirable: all eight movable plates survive and all eight mechanisms remain fully functional, allowing Meggendorfer’s remarkable paper engineering to operate today as its creator intended in 1887.

Price: $3,000.00