Monday, September 19, 2011

A Short History of Pop-Up Books

The first movable books actually predate the print culture. The earliest known examples of such interactive mechanisms are by Ramón Llull (c.1235-1316) of Majorca, a Catalán mystic and poet. His works contain volvelles or revolving discs, which he used to illustrate his complex philosophical search for truth. Volvelles were utilized from Llull's time through to the eighteenth century for manuscripts and in printed books. They illustrated a variety of topics, including natural science, astronomy, mathematics, mysticism, fortune telling, navigation, and medicine. 

 

Other types of movables, in particular "turn-up" or "lift-the-flap" mechanisms, were in use as early as the fourteenth century. They were especially helpful in books on anatomy, where separate leaves, each featuring a different section of the body, could be hinged together at the top and attached to a page. This technique enabled the viewer to unfold, for instance, multiple depths of a torso, from ribcage to abdomen to spine. One spectacular example of an anatomical movable is Andreas Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome, printed in Basel in 1543. It features a movable illustration in which the human anatomy is shown in seven detailed superimposed layers.




Movable books were not created for juvenile audiences until the early nineteenth century. In fact, children's books were not published on a large scale until the latter half of the eighteenth century, when publisher John Newbery began selling books specifically for children.
 
In the1820s, miniature portrait painter William Grimaldi developed another type of "lift-the-flap" book referred to as a toilet book. He initially devised the idea by sketching articles from his daughter's dressing table as representations of specific virtues. The articles served as flaps, which, when lifted up, revealed scenes illustrating each virtue. Grimaldi's son Stacy published the first book in 1821. Entitled The Toilet, it enjoyed great popularity and inspired other publishers release imitations.


Although the early kinds of movables described above are extremely scarce, a number of copies have survived. Images of these early books can be found in Sten G. Lindberg's "Mobiles in Books: Volvelles, Inserts, Pyramids, Divinations and Children's Games" (The Private Library, 3rd series, vol. 2), Peter Haining's Movable Books: An Illustrated History, and Blair Whitton's Paper Toys of the World.
 
   
One German illustrator made a name for himself in the world of movable books - Lothar Meggendorfer. Meggendorfer entered into the publishing business in 1866 as a writer and illustrator for the humor magazine Flying Pages, which was similar to England's Punch. In the 1880s he started his long running paper, entitled The Meggendorfer Pages. His first movable was Living Pictures (1878), which he originally created for his son Adolf as a Christmas present. He went on to illustrate and engineer as many as two hundred movable books. His books were published in both German and English editions, and were adjusted for the separate markets.

 
Dean and Son was the first publisher to produce movable books on a large scale. Thomas Dean, who founded the firm sometime before 1800, was one of the first publishers to take full advantage of the new printing process, lithography, which was invented in Germany in 1798. His business was devoted exclusively to making and selling novelty books, or "toy" books, a term publishers began using in the early nineteenth century. His son George became a partner in 1847, and their toy books took over the market from the 1840s to the 1880s.


During the nineteenth century, the French took an early interest in paper dolls and went on to produce fine paper toys, including movables. The publisher A. Capendu of Paris released several movables under the series Libraire enfantine illustrée. Some were "pull-out" books, in the style of McLoughlin's Little Showman's Series. However, the series also included "pull-the-tab" movables, similar to those of Meggendorfer. Le Chaperon rouge, or Little Red Riding Hood, is an example of a tab operated movable from the series.

In the 1930s, Blue Ribbon Publishing of New York worked with talented artists and engineers to produce a successful series of imaginative pop-ups. Many of the books' colorful characters were inspired by the recent popularity of Walt Disney animation. Notably, Blue Ribbon introduced term "pop-up" to market their books.

During the 1940s, Julian Wehr animated a number of movable books for several American publishers. His designs were all operated by tabs, which moved various parts of the illustration. While most tabs in early movables were located at the bottom of the pages and operated by pulling down, Wehr's designs were more flexible than traditional "pull-the-tab" books.

Voitech Kubasta was an artist for Artia, a state-run import/export company in Prague. In the 1950s and 1960s, he engineered and illustrated pop-up books for Artia that were marketed throughout the world by Bancroft and Company of London. Kubasta created colorful, engaging designs that often accompanied fairy tales.
Due to the popularity of Kubasta's books in the 1950s and 1960s, American Waldo Hunt wanted to publish them in the United States. However, the producer, Artia, was located in Czeckoslavakia, and exporting directly from a Warsaw Pact country to the United States was prohibited. Instead, in 1965 Hunt created his own company, Graphics International, which produced pop-up books for Random House. In 1969, Hallmark Cards took over Graphics International; and, after producing over forty titles with Hallmark, Hunt left to start another company, Intervisual Communications. Today, Intervisual Communications, or ICI, produces a large number of the pop-up books on the market. 
 



Current designers, paper engineers, and illustrators work with a company like ICI to produce a model for a publisher, but the books are constructed by hand in Mexico, South America, or Singapore. Although a pop-up book's design and construction is a group effort, several names, such as Robert Sabuda, Nick Bantock, Jan Pienkowski, and David Pelham, are well-known for their artistry and innovative techniques in the pop-up book world.




















32 comments:

  1. Hi, nice blog!i love the pop up with the birds! Do you know the title or the author?
    Thank you
    Elena

    ReplyDelete
  2. The book name is Richard Leakey's "Beyond the 6th Extinction: A Fifth Millennium Bestiary", and the book is is constructed by Shawn Sheehy of handmade, hand-dyed cotton/abaca paper, book board and linen thread. The type was set digitally in Joanna and letterpress printed from polymer plates.
    Thanks for the interest!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Excellent way of telling, and fastidious article to get data
    about my presentation focus, which i am going to deliver
    in institution of higher education.

    Here is my blog - Visit Link

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your way of telling all in this piece of writing is truly pleasant,
    all be capable of effortlessly understand
    it, Thanks a lot.

    Feel free to surf to my site visit link

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is really attention-grabbing, You are an excessively skilled blogger.
    I have joined your feed and look ahead to in the hunt for more of
    your magnificent post. Additionally, I have shared your web site in my social networks

    Also visit my web blog ... more info

    ReplyDelete
  6. We are a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in
    our community. Your web site offered us with valuable information to work on.
    You have done an impressive job and our entire community will be grateful to you.


    My site more info

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's going to be finish of mine day, however before end I am reading this fantastic post to improve my knowledge.

    My homepage more info

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hello, i think that i saw you visited my weblog thus i came to “return the
    favor”.I'm attempting to find things to improve my web site!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!

    Also visit my weblog ... more information
    My website :: site

    ReplyDelete
  9. My brother recommended I may like this web site.
    He was entirely right. This submit truly made my day. You can not imagine simply how so
    much time I had spent for this info! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am really enjoying the theme/design of your site.
    Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility issues?

    A couple of my blog readers have complained about my site not working correctly in Explorer but looks great
    in Chrome. Do you have any suggestions to help fix this problem?


    Look at my blog post - click here
    My page - know more

    ReplyDelete
  11. Good day! This is kind of off topic but I need some
    guidance from an established blog. Is it very hard to set up
    your own blog? I'm not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty quick. I'm
    thinking about creating my own but I'm not sure where to begin. Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Many thanks

    Here is my blog; website

    ReplyDelete
  12. An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a coworker who was conducting a little homework on this.
    And he actually ordered me breakfast due to the fact that I stumbled upon it for him.
    .. lol. So let me reword this.... Thank YOU for the
    meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending time to discuss this
    topic here on your internet site.

    Feel free to visit my blog more info

    ReplyDelete
  13. It's very easy to find out any topic on web as compared to books, as I found this piece of writing at this website.
    My web page: website

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your post
    seem to be running off the screen in Chrome.
    I'm not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with web browser compatibility but I figured I'd post to let you know.

    The design and style look great though! Hope you get the problem fixed soon.
    Thanks

    my web site - Visit link

    ReplyDelete
  15. I do consider all of the concepts you have presented to your post.
    They are very convincing and can definitely work.
    Still, the posts are too brief for starters. Could you
    please prolong them a bit from subsequent time?
    Thanks for the post.

    Here is my web page :: site
    Also see my web site: Click here

    ReplyDelete
  16. Simply want to say your article is as astonishing.
    The clearness in your post is just cool and i can assume you are an expert on this
    subject. Fine with your permission allow me to grab your RSS feed
    to keep updated with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and
    please continue the enjoyable work.

    Feel free to surf to my blog post: site

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi, Neat post. There is an issue together with your
    web site in web explorer, would test this? IE still
    is the marketplace chief and a large component of people
    will pass over your magnificent writing due to this problem.


    My web page - website

    ReplyDelete
  18. Magnificent goods from you, man. I've understand your stuff previous to and you're just extremely
    excellent. I actually like what you have acquired here, certainly like what you are saying and the way in which you say it.

    You make it enjoyable and you still care for to keep it sensible.
    I cant wait to read far more from you. This is really a great
    website.

    Feel free to surf to my homepage: visit Link
    My web page - website

    ReplyDelete
  19. Pretty great post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to mention
    that I've truly enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. In any case I will be subscribing for your rss feed and I am hoping you write once more very soon!

    Here is my homepage :: know more

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hey there just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know
    a few of the pictures aren't loading correctly. I'm not sure why but I think
    its a linking issue. I've tried it in two different browsers and both show the same results.

    Here is my homepage website

    ReplyDelete
  21. Normally I do not read post on blogs, but I wish to
    say that this write-up very compelled me to take a look at and do so!

    Your writing style has been surprised me. Thank you, quite
    great post.

    Here is my blog: website

    ReplyDelete
  22. Thanks , I have just been looking for info approximately this subject for a while and
    yours is the best I've discovered so far. But, what about the bottom line? Are you sure in regards to the supply?

    Check out my web-site more Info

    ReplyDelete
  23. I do not create a lot of comments, but i did some searching and wound
    up here "A Short History of Pop-Up Books".
    And I do have a few questions for you if you don't mind. Is it only me or does it appear like a few of the responses look like written by brain dead folks? :-P And, if you are writing on other online sites, I would like to follow anything fresh you have to post. Would you list of every one of your communal sites like your Facebook page, twitter feed, or linkedin profile?

    Also visit my website - site

    ReplyDelete
  24. Incredible points. Solid arguments. Keep up the great work.


    My web page :: site

    ReplyDelete
  25. Everything is very open with a precise explanation of the
    issues. It was definitely informative. Your website is
    very useful. Many thanks for sharing!

    my blog post; visit link
    Also see my webpage :: know more

    ReplyDelete
  26. I have been browsing online greater than 3 hours
    these days, but I by no means discovered any attention-grabbing article like yours.
    It is pretty worth sufficient for me. Personally, if all site owners
    and bloggers made just right content as you did, the net will probably be much more helpful than ever before.

    ReplyDelete
  27. A person essentially help to make seriously
    articles I would state. That is the very first time I frequented your web page and thus far?
    I amazed with the research you made to create this actual
    post incredible. Excellent process!

    Also visit my web-site: site

    ReplyDelete
  28. Hey there! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I
    could find a captcha plugin for my comment form? I'm using the same blog platform as yours and I'm having difficulty finding one?
    Thanks a lot!

    Stop by my web page accident vehicle cleaning Gauteng
    Also see my page: crime scene clean up Gauteng

    ReplyDelete
  29. This design is spectacular! You most certainly know how to keep a
    reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost.
    ..HaHa!) Excellent job. I really enjoyed what you
    had to say, and more than that, how you presented it. Too
    cool!

    Here is my web-site - website

    ReplyDelete
  30. Ahaa, its nice conversation regarding this piece of writing at this place at
    this webpage, I have read all that, so at this time me also commenting here.


    Also visit my web page :: protection covers Johannesburg

    ReplyDelete
  31. Thanks for sharing your thoughtѕ аbout lоse 5 poundѕ fast.
    Regаrds

    Feеl free to surf to mу blog raspberry ketone uk

    ReplyDelete
  32. Very helpful tutorial, i can do my best to make my first own.. You may love the Pop Up Books from http://popupcards.net. This company really make the pop-up cards by hands.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Fotolia