Monday, November 24, 2014

Snow White Magic Mirror Book

Circa 1938-1939, the Snow White Magic Mirror Book was published by Dean & Son Ltd., London. Hardcover, no dust jacket as issued. 60 pages. The handsome cover illustration features Snow and the Dwarfs at the Wishing Well. The book tells the complete story and includes an appearance from Snow White's mother before her death. There's also the bed-building scene which was deleted from the final film.




On the front inside cover is an attached envelope which holds your "magic spectacles". Wait. What? These will come in handy because...




...opposite the title page is the first of six red stereoscopic plates which--when viewed with the blue and red-lensed glasses--creates the illusion of three-dimensional depth. These single-sided pages are each printed on glossy art paper.



The book is also illustrated with black & white drawings throughout.



The stereoscopic images are actually 3D photographs of clay figures that are placed within small dioramas. Would love to see these original figures someday, if they still exist in someone's Snow White colletion.







Image scans courtesy of the Michael Filippello Collection.


The Queen has panthers? Learn a few more interesting anecdotes about this book at Whistle While We Blog.

4 comments:

  1. Great post! The pictures really show it off how awesome the book is. Who doesn't love a book that comes with 3D glasses?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Charming! The last still looks like a photo of Disneyland's original Snow White's Adventures ride.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wonder if the original imagineers who designed the 1955 DL attraction might have used books like this as reference guides.

      Delete