610* Toy. Baby’s Paint Box, French, circa 1857, red cardboard clamshell-style paint box, base containing eight coloured paint blocks (some bowed), with wooden brush holder in brass loop, lettered above ‘couleurs prépareés avec les substances’ and below ‘autorisées par le conseil d’hygiène et de salubrité’, two pairs of lithographed illustrations folded into lid (two uncoloured and two hand-coloured as a guide for copying), one showing female figures and a child by a doorway, and the other showing a peasant girl with a basket on her shoulder, verso with indistinct inscription in a juvenile hand dated 1857, very slightly spotted and dust-soiled in places, embossed lid with lozenge containing a ‘B’ between caducei, lettered above ‘Baby’s Paint Box’ and below ‘Colours Free From Poison’, title lacking fastener, dimensions of box when closed 7.5 x 11.5cm (3 x 4.5ins) Extremely rare child’s paint box, in excellent unused condition. (1) £100-150
608* Toy Theatre. Excursions on Land & Sea: the World’s Wonders, Birmingham: Joseph Walker, circa 1890s, thirty-two transparent coloured scenes on a paper scroll, each titled below image, mounted on two rollers turned by a wooden handle, working but a little stiff, back illuminated by a central candle, contained within a decorative paper-covered cardboard theatre, creased to front and some surface losses to rear of proscenium arch, dusty inside, 18 x 17 x 9cm (7 x 6.5 x 3.5ins) Provenance: From the collection of Percy H. Muir. Joseph Walker applied for a US patent for his imitation show panorama in 1894. A rare survival. (1) £400-600
611* Toy theatre. Comprising a Perfect Theatre, Together with all the Scenes, Side Scenes, and Characters, in the Popular Play of The Red Rover, [title from detached printed label], published Penny Theatre Royal, circa 1855, a decorated wooden folding stage, verso with printed label ‘Directions for using Sanderson’s Patent Scene Blocks’, dimensions folded 21.5 x 18.5 x 3cm (8.5 x 7.25 x 1.25ins), with accompanying paraphenalia comprising: seven scenes, nine side scenes, and twenty-three figures and groups of figures, all hand-coloured engraved cut-outs mounted on card; a small quantity of wooden sticks and blocks; and a 10pp. booklet (including printed pink paper wrappers) entitled The Red Rover, written for and adapted only to the Penny Theatre Royal, together with Landells (Ebenezer), Home Pastime or the Childs Own Toy Maker with Practical Instructions, Griffith & Farran, circa 1858, sixteen loose lithographed sheets (complete and unused), each with outline illustrations to cut out, accompanied by 16pp. booklet of instructions in printed yellow paper wrappers, contained in original slipcase with printed decorative title-label on front, some marks and extremities slightly worn, oblong 4to
609* Toy Animals. A collection of small toy animals and figures, early 19th century, approximately thirty wooden or plaster animals (deer, monkey, camel, goat, sheep, etc.), and three figures, a number with damage or loss, together with some sections of painted wooden buildings, various sizes, and a small mid-19th century box in the shape of a chest, tooled leather over wood, with metal carrying handle and lock, worn, with repairs, 8.5 x 20 x 13cm (3.25 x 8 x 5ins) Sold with all faults, not subject to return. (a small carton)
£70-100
Provenance: From the library of Percy H. Muir. The Red Rover is number four (of twelve) of the Penny Theatre Royal Sheets as listed on the rear cover of the pink booklet enclosed. Early toy theatres are scarce and are rarely found with as many intact components as this example. (2) £100-150
Lot 610
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