AMONG THE FIRST AMERICAN POP-UP BOOKS: LENTZ’ “POP-UP” CINDERELLA, 1933

LENTZ, Harold B., illustrator. The "Pop-up" Cinderella. Including Hansel and Gretel, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Puss-In-Boots. With "Pop-Up" Illustrations by Harold B. Lentz. New York: Blue Ribbon Books, (1933). Thick octavo, original pictorial boards and endpapers, original pictorial dust jacket. $1800.

First “pop-up” edition of four famed fairy tales, illustrated with in-text line-drawings and four wonderful pop-ups by Harold B. Lentz, completely intact.

Blue Ribbon was the first publisher to market its books using the term "pop-up." They and paper-engineer Harold Lentz collaborated in the 1930s to produce a successful series of imaginative pop-ups, many of which were inspired by the popularity of Walt Disney animation. These are the first modern pop-up books produced in America, borrowed from a series of British pop-ups by Brown and Giraud in the 1930s under the imprint Bookano. As Blue Ribbon explains for the first time, "These are three-dimensional illustrations that rise out of the book when it is opened and vanish when it is closed." Montanaro, 241.

Book with pop-ups completely intact, several inner margins expertly reinforced, slight creasing to spine. Bright dust jacket with only light wear to extremities and tape repair to verso. A lovely, near-fine copy.