The Pop-Up Cinderella and Other Tales with “Pop - Up” Illustrations by Harold B. Lentz - 1933
The "Pop-Up" Cinderella including Hansel and Gretel, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Puss-in-Boots.
New York: Blue Ribbon Books, [1933].
8 3/4 × 6 1/2 × 2 in. Printed on heavy stock. 96pp.
Good with 4 fabulous pop-ups in fine condition. All pages included. Binding is not original. Backstrip professionally restored in 2005, but all pages not secured. See photos for condition as there is some wear on the boards.The last pop-up still has a perfectly intact cellophane "cage" but animal head is separated from page and needs reattaching. Original Owner.
Superb Paper-Engineering!
Collectible, charming book
It's a beauty and in good condition too - especially for its age and type! Vintage / Near Antique
Collector's Corner:
Harold B. Lentz was a contemporary of S. Louis Giraud and Theodore Brown. Lentz provided the illustrations for numerous pop-up books . Blue Ribbon Books was the first US publisher to use the term “pop-up,” which it registered as a trade mark for its “Illustrated Pop-up Editions.” Note: Giraud was just an editor/packager and Theodore Brown (not Giraud) was the writer and paper engineer - perhaps because Giraud shared the patent with Brown (which was a commercial arrangement and not indicative of co-invention), and perhaps because Giraud's name appears in the books and Brown's name does not, the role of Giraud is frequently misunderstood.
Harold Bryant Lentz lived in Ohio. According to vintagepopupbook.com's research through the US census, google books, and gravestones, Mr. Lentz was born Feb. 19,1896. He passed away on January 27, 1980 at age 83. At the time he was referred to as "a retired commercial artist and originator of "popup" books for children".
Lentz was a graduate of Columbus (Ohio) Art School. He married Margaret Lentz in 1917. Margaret passed away in 1981. He had two children, a son Thomas; daughter Mrs. Carleton Smith "Ginny", later named Virginia Ann Sathre. Ginny passed away in 2017, Thomas preceeded her at some point.
At the time of his wedding he was a writer for the Columbus (Ohio) Daily Monitor**. His first known illustration job was (an apparently self-published) paper dolls booklet created in 1918 when he was just 21 years old entitled: "The Sandman Visits Santa Claus Educational Amusement for Little Hands" This Paste-craft booklet was published in Columbus Ohio where Harold graduated from art school. We have located the copyright for paste-craft - it was entered by Harold Lentz himself in 1919*.
* Catalogue of Copyright Entries: Pamphlets, leaflets, contributions to newspapers or periodicals, etc.; lectures, sermons, addresses for oral delivery; dramatic compositions; maps; motion pictures, Volume 16, Issue 1, page 549.
** Fourth Estate: A Weekly Newspaper for Publishers, ... - Page 19
According to Harold Lentz's Grandchild," Lentz not only did all of the artwork for the book, he did the engineering of the pop-ups as well. He spent most of his career as a commercial (advertising) artist."
Moveable Staionary (Volume 4, number 3) quoted a brief article about Lentz that they found in Publisher's Weekly which noted that "much of the credit for the success of these books should be given to Harold B. Lentz. The finished quality is due to Mr. Lentz's ingenuity & diligence.
After long hours of labor and experimenting, Mr. Lentz prepared preliminary sketches and dummies. When these faded to satisfy him he made more, tearing up one rough working dummy after another after he discovered impractical folds in the mechanism. The finished books which he finally submitted will permit constant opening and closing of the books without crushing the complicated folded pieces."