New Arrivals
Movable,Mechanical, Entertainment,Paper Dolls, Costume and Fashion, Pretend Play,
[1850]. A 9" die-cut a paper doll with eyes that move to and fro and "dancing" legs. She has five (5) costumes and headdresses. Each costume has an applied back with opening at the top to slip the doll into the costume. Her costumes are quite whimsical and each present.....
Price: $2,000.00
Social History and Classes, Paper Dolls, Costume and Fashion, Pretend Play,Morality
Paris: H. Rousseau, [1855]. An untitled elaborate paper doll set with room setting. The litho on the cover depicts one lady admiring herself in a mirror with a second dresses the child and another lady looks on. Includes two identical 6.75" two-sided female dolls and a 4.75" child. The women.....
Price: $2,500.00
Entertainment,Ballet,Social History,Paper Dolls, Costume and Fashion, Pretend Play,
[1845-1850]. A boxed set of paper doll Fanny Elssler, an Austrian Ballerina with applied hand color finished litho label depicting the performer. Includes a 5" two-sided paper doll and six (6) two-sided finely printed costumes and one (1) headdress. A lovely little set.
Price: $1,600.00
Circus, Entertainment, Songster, Dime Hand Book, Racism
New York: William H. Murphy, [1895]. 37 pp. . A wide array of songs. Many with writer's name and copyright year (mostly 1889) Last page and back wrapper promotes Merchant's Oil products. Measures 6 3/4" x 4 3/4"
Price: $200.00
Circus, Entertainment, Songster, Dime Hand Book, Clowns
New York: N.Y. Popular Pub. Co., [1895]. 32 unnumbered pages with hand colored illustrated wraps of circus performers. A wide array of songs. Many with writer's name and copyright year (mostly 1889) Last page and back wrapper promotes Merchant's Oil products. Measures 6.75" by 4.75"
Price: $200.00
Circus, Entertainment, Songster, Dime Hand Book
New York: N.Y. Popular Pub. Co., [1895]. 32 unnumbered pages with hand colored illustrated wraps of circus performers. A wide array of songs. Many with writer's name and copyright year (mostly 1889) Inside covers and last 2 pp. promote other Dime Hand Books. Measures 6.75" by 4.75"
Price: $325.00
Victorian Cookie, Love and Friendship, Oddities
New York: [1890s]. An elaborate cookie created in the shape of a heart with applied cornucopias and a Cupid with a floral garland. Applied gold leaf to bead-shaped border decoration. The cookie was applied to a New York City street map for cooling/stability. The map on the reverse is helpful.....
Price: $450.00
Souvenirs, Tammany Hall, Inaugurations, New York City Politics, Political Machines
New York, New York: J.W. McDonald & Co., 1893. Illustrated souvenir of the second inauguration of Grover Cleveland on March 4th, 1893, published by Tammany Hall. Also known as the Tammany Society, the organization was funded by political patrons in New York City and had infamous control over the New.....
Price: $325.00
Humor, Cutlery Puns
London: J. King, [1890s]. Two (2) amusing greeting cards designed with cutlery puns: "A Stirring Time to You" - may you always have a fresh spoon when the old one turns rusty..., "A FORK to show you're not fork-gotten...", and so on. Each is crafted out of embossed decorated paper.....
Price: $350.00
People's Party, Populist Party, Women and Politics, Women's Rights, White Slavery, American History
San Francisco, California: Cubery & Co., Printers, 1894. Printed notice promoting meetings of the People's Party with lectures by Carrie Filkins Young on the following subjects: "Political Issues: of Vital Interest to Women"; "The Black Page of American History"; or "White Slavery: How [it became] Fastened Upon the American People".....
Price: $150.00
Counter Cards, Display Cards, Shop Display Ephemera
London, England: c.1900. A well-preserved counter card advertising "Samuel Brothers' Silk Hat Renovator", a liquid product for restoring top hats. Features a humorous illustration of an older gentleman struggling with his old-fashioned hat brush while his younger counterpart outpaces him with the new product. The dialogue reads, "I can't get.....
Price: $375.00
Kindergarten, Froebel
Springfield, Massachusetts: Milton Bradley Co., 1906. Illustrated catalogue for Milton Bradley's range of Kindergarten materials, showing the popularity and profitability of Froebel in early education circa 1906. The items on offer include a diverse range of objects, including: books; parquetry papers and blocks (for learning shapes and colors); paste, paper.....
Price: $250.00
Prang, Leporello, Barnyard Animals, Pastoral
Boston, Massachusetts: L. Prang & Co., 1865. A folding accordion-style (leporello) children's book by Prang, featuring a happy host of barnyard animals including chickens, ducks, a horse, pigs, and a night-hawk. Advertises children's books and Valentines by Prang on lower wrapper. Measures 4.25" by 2.75" folded, approx. 4.25" by 31".....
Price: $450.00
Prang, Christmas, St. Nicholas
Boston, Massachusetts: L. Prang & Co., 1864. A charming children's story about St. Nicholas, published in the form of a folding accordion-style book by Louis Prang. Includes twelve illustrated panels including a title-page and final illustration of St. Nicholas bidding the reader a Merry Christmas. Advertises Prang's Album Cards on.....
Price: $500.00
Chromolithography, Undergarments
France: c.1890. A cheeky April Fools Day card die-cut to resemble a skirt that, when opened, reveals a fold-out pop-up of a woman in her undergarments. The printed message inside reads (loosely translated): "First of April. When you take off your petticoat, I already find you pretty; but take off.....
Price: $125.00
Pop-Ups and Moveables, Paper Engineering
London and New York, Printed in Bavaria: Ernest Nister and E.P. Dutton & Co., [1896]. First (sole?) edition of an enchanting and engaging look into "Fairy Land" via a clever use of pop-ups, in very good condition. Illustrations by Eveline Stuart Hardy. Tells several fairy stories with six (6) full-page.....
Price: $925.00
Pretend Play, Postal History, Mail, Punch and Judy
London, England: J.W. Spears & Sons, c.1900. Exceedingly endearing: "The Little Folk's Post Office" is a play set that allows children to pretend to send and receive miniature mail from the "Tiny Town" post office. Designed in England, produced in Bavaria, and sold to children in the United States, by.....
Price: $425.00
Hunting Games, Victorian Play
New York, New York: Clark & Sowdon, c.1895. Part of the "Tokalon Series" by Victorian game producer Clark & Sowdon, "Hunting the Rabbit" is a racing-style board game for four players (two rabbits, a hunter, and a dog). The goal is to complete a circuit of the game board first.....
Price: $300.00
German Paper Dolls
Germany: 1930s. A charming 13.75" chromolithographed and die-cut paper doll produced in Germany, depicting a little girl with her hand over her heart. This doll is special because the hand on each of the outfits lifts to allow the doll to "hold" its accessories. Has stand in back to allow.....
Price: $100.00
Mourning, Mourning Poetry
Scituate, Rhode Island: 1867. A touching and seemingly scarce printed tribute to Sarah E. Dorrance, a Rhode Island woman who died at the age of twenty-nine. Includes seven stanzas of loving poetry, each stanza rhyming "AABB". We have been unable to trace another printing of this poem. Measures approx. 7.75".....
Price: $150.00
Kindergarten, Preschool, Early Education, Woven Hearts, Paper, Patent Medicine Advertising, Arts and Crafts, Froebel
United States and Germany: c.1920. Three (3) items related to the Kindergarten method, including a photo, a coloring book, and a booklet offering tips for mothers on how to incorporate the Kindergarten method into family life at home. The items include: Original c.1900 photograph of a young girl playing with.....
Price: $250.00
Children's Health, Children's Hospitals
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 1890. A valuable printed record of medicines prescribed by doctors at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia from 1890. Also contains diet suggestions for children aged 6 months to 2 years. The Prescribing Manual is divided by medicine type (e.g. "Liquores", "Misturae", "Linimenta") and includes.....
Price: $250.00
Fables, Morals, Storytelling in Education, Sarah Trimmer, Children's Books
Boston, Massachusetts: William J. Reynolds, c.1845. Second part of a six-part series published for "Uncle John's Library", with in-text illustrations and a hand-colored frontispiece. Penned by children's writer Sarah Trimmer (1741-1810), this part of "Ladder to Learning" contains "Fables consisting of words not exceeding three syllables" (title-page) including such titles.....
Price: $125.00
Native American History
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: E.M. Hale and Company, 1939. With illustrations by Jane Bateman, "Two Little Navahos Dip Their Sheep" tells young readers the story of a normal day in the life of a Navaho family, with a glossary in the back with Navaho terms. Sheep dipping is shown, the practice of.....
Price: $75.00