London; New York, 1905
1905.10.57

Ernest Nister (1841–1906) was a publisher and printer of movable books for children. He developed some of the techniques used in the design of ‘magic windows’, ‘dissolving picture’, and pop-up books, publishing them from his firm based in Nuremberg, a toy-making centre in the nineteenth century. In addition to the German books, an English version was produced for Nister’s London office and an American version, working with Edward Payson Dutton, for Dutton Publishing, his American publisher. This set of eighteen stand-up characters in a farmyard provides an idealised vision of the countryside at a time when urbanisation was becoming prevalent.