Making the Past Speak: The Speaking Picture Book (1890s)

The Speaking Picture Book: A new Picture Book with Characteristically Voices. London: H. Gravel & Co. Made in Germany. Ca. 1890s (300 x 230 x 60mm) 8 illustrations of animals with facing page poetry + title page + informative pastedown. Red cloth binding with stamped edge decoration; chromolithograph plate as cover image with title, text, and vignette of mother playing with children and pets. The 8 card boar pages sit on top of the speaking mechanism, housed in a gilt wooden box with ornate sound vents. 9 tabs with red wooden beads produce 9 voices. Scuffing to cover illustration. Smudges throughout. Historic tape-based repair to the Donkey has left the page stiff. An historic child has drawn lines in purple crayon to Mama and Papa. Bumping to corners. Rebacked. Strings and tabs not original, but an early intervention. The bellows are original, some of the strings are original with indication of historic (early 20th c.) replacements. All sounds function. The fact this toy, manuf