(Toy and Movable Books, Pop-Up Books, Aviation History) THE AIRSHIP PANORAMA BOOK (code no. 3521).
London: Ernest Nister; New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., circa 1912. FIRST EDITION. Oblong 8vo - 7-5/16" x 8-1/2". Red cloth-backed glazed paper-covered boards with a color drawing of an army airship rounding St. Paul's Cathedral in London and titles printed in red on front cover. Plain white endpapers. [12] pp. Stories of airships told in verse, illustrated throughout with sepia line drawings in-text and four full-color pop-up scenes, each featuring a pop-up airship set against a detailed full-color background drawing; pop-ups automatically deploy when pages are opened.
The physical condition of the item is graded VERY GOOD (utilizing the standard antiquarian book grading scale for works on paper). The paper-covered boards exhibit light to moderate wear to extremities and light surface soiling. Internally clean with one text page having a small abrasion in the lower margin. All four pop-up mechanical structures are complete, undamaged, and function smoothly as designed.
Edwardian Aviation Fascination and Nister Paper Mechanics
Published during the golden age of early aeronautics prior to World War I, The Airship Panorama Book captures the public imagination surrounding dirigibles and military airships in Edwardian England. Produced by Ernest Nister, one of the premier late nineteenth and early twentieth-century publishers renowned for innovative mechanical book structures and fine chromolithography, this volume utilizes dynamic three-dimensional pop-up mechanisms that pull forward automatically upon opening each spread. Accompanying the verse narratives and sepia margin drawings are complete, intact pop-up airships rendered in brilliant full color.
Series Bibliography, Census, and Market Scarcity
Mechanical and pop-up children's books from the Ernest Nister press are highly susceptible to severe paper fatigue, detached pop-up elements, or broken pull tabs, making complete and fully functioning examples extraordinarily scarce. A current global sweep of the OCLC/WorldCat database locates only 7 copies preserved in institutional special collections worldwide, including at Winterthur Library, Princeton University Library, and Boston Athenaeum.
THIS EXCEEDINGLY RARE AND STRUCTURALLY COMPLETE POP-UP BOOK OFFERS A REMARKABLE SURVIVING EXAMPLE OF EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY MECHANICAL PAPER ENGINEERING AND AVIATION JUVENILIA, REPRESENTING A CRITICAL ACQUISITION FOR INSTITUTIONAL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS OR EXTRAORDINARY PRIVATE COLLECTIONS DEVOTED TO THE HISTORY OF TOY AND MOVABLE BOOKS, EARLY AVIATION, OR EDWARDIAN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE.
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