Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn

New and Notable...Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare's Globe: an interactive pop-up theatre / Toby Forward;  Juan Wijngaard. Cambridge, Mass.: Candlewick Press, c2005.

King Lear, Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Hamlet, and the Merchant of Venice are among the Shakespearean plays that come to life in this interactive pop-up portfolio of the Bard and the Globe Theatre in London.

Shakespeare’s Globe, created by Toby Forward and Juan Wijngaard, features a dramatic pop-up model of the Globe Theater, a twelve-page history the theater, pamphlets containing scenes form notable plays by William Shakespeare, and ten punch-out strips of characters.  Each strip of characters can be placed on the stage as one reads the scenes from a play.—Stephen van Dyk, photos by Elizabeth Broman

New & Notable...Gloria in excelsis deo

Gloria in excelsis deo. Illustrated by Vojtěch Kubašta. Czechoslavakia: c. 1960.

This double-page pop-up illustrating the Christmas nativity scene was created by Vojtěch Kubašta (1914-1992), a Czech artist and book illustrator. Born in Vienna and raised in Prague, Kubašta began his career as an artist and book illustrator in the early 1940s after studying architecture at the Polytech University in Prague.

His distinctive bold and colorful figures, as seen in this work, became increasingly popular. After the Czech publishing industry was nationalized in 1948, Kubašta began creating advertising materials for Czech products abroad that included three-dimensional cards for items such as Pilsner beer, porcelain and sewing machines. Beginning in the 1950s, he developed elaborate paper construction crèches annually (this being an example) each Christmas season. At this time, Kubašta also designed pop-ups of traditional fairy tales and other children stories (Little Red Riding Hood—1956 being his first) working with the Czech publishing house Artia.

His beautifully designed and intricate pop-ups were later produced from the 1960s-1980s worldwide and became the inspiration for the revival of the pop-up book industry in America.—Stephen van Dyk, photos by Elizabeth Broman

Gift of Stephen Van Dyk

New & Notable...Ali Baba e i 40 ladroni

Ali Baba e i 40 ladroni, [Ali Baba and the 40 thieves], Mario Zampini and Raimondo Centurione, Milan: Hoepli editore, ca. 1950, Gift of Roma and David Korris

Italian illustrator Mario Zampini used his experience as a stage designer to create the “rooms” for this carousel book, based on the classic Arabian folktale.

Ali Baba and the forty thieves is dramatically brought to life in this colorful carousel pop-up book by Italian designers Mario Zampini and Raimondo Centurione. In this Italian language version, Ali Baba I 40 ladroni,  Zampini—a noted illustrator and stage designer—tells the story through a series of intricately designed stage set rooms. Zampini was also noted for other carousels—books that unfold from a flat book into a 360 degree circle. Purchase—Roma and David Korris Fund.—Stephen van Dyk, photos by Elizabeth Broman

New & Notable...The Falshood of External Appearances

The Falshood of External Appearances, England, ca. 1790

The first movable books for children, developed in England in the 1700s, were harlequinades (stories featuring the comic character Harlequin). Designed to teach a moral, the tale unfolds as a series of flaps are opened.

The Falshood of External Appearances (sic) created in the 1790s in England is a fine example of a flap book called a harlequinade. Also known as “turned up” books, harlequinades were first created by English bookseller and printer Robert Sayer in 1765. They are considered to be the first movable books created for children. Sayer, who originally called these books “metamorphoses,” was inspired by the popularity of pantomime productions of his day. He mimicked the changing scenes of a play with the use of a series of illustrated flaps—that when lifted revealed the next scene of the narrative.  Like the pantomime theater performance, harlequinades often featured the adventures of a clown or harlequin and were often written to teach a moral. Purchased  with the support of the Libraries Special Collections Fund.—Stephen van Dyk, photos by Elizabeth Broman