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Discovering Children's Books
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Three images from a single page showing an illustration of a dog in a chair with a boy playing ‘peek a boo’ with the dog. The boy and dog move positions in the three different images. Add to board
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Pages from ‘Merry Company. A funny movable toybook’.

These three images show the same page from the ‘Merry Company’ book, as the tab is pulled to make the images change. Made in Germany in 1891 by Lothar Meggendorfer, this is one of the most intricate movable books made in the 19th century. Sandwiched between the pages is a complex system of connected cardboard levers, joined with tiny coils of copper wire. When a tab is pulled, five or more parts of the images in the book move in different directions at once!

You can view more content from this item by visiting The British Library’s 'Discovering Children’s Books' website.

Held by the British Library