'Pop-up book' has become the generally recognised term to describe any book that contains three-dimensional paper pictures or any interactive element such as flaps or pull-tabs made from paper. 'Pop-up' was in fact registered as a trade mark in the USA by Blue Ribbon Books Inc., of New York between the two world wars. These 'magical' books that conceal within their two dimensional covers magnificent structures and mechanisms have become very popular in recent years but, surprisingly, have a very long history.

The first known examples of an 'interactive' element in a book date back to the 13th century. These early hand-written documents, contained what are called 'volvelles'. Volvelles were basically discs with a central pivot that could be rotated to reveal, or point to, words or symbols on the page. The books were often mystical in subject using the volvelles to foretell the future or in some cases, create secret codes.

By the 14th century, scholars working in scriptoriums were using paper flaps to superimpose layers of the human body into detailed books about human anatomy. In 1583, a book produced by a Dresden scholar, was an anatomical study containing diagrams detailing the hand and eye which used five or six superimposed layers. After this, there was little technical development in paper engineering until the late 18th century, when the combination of cheaper and better printing and the increasingly literate society, began to create a demand for books and, in particular, books for entertainment. A totally new market had emerged — books for children.

The first pop-up book aimed specifically at children is debatable but by the 1820s, the unappealingly named 'toilet books' published by Stacey Grinaldi, were becoming fashionable. These were essentially 'lift the flap' books. The company of Dean & Son, London, is claimed to be the true originator of children's pop-up books. Dean & Son successfully marketed about 50 different titles of movable and pop-up books to the new affluent and expanding middle classes of Victorian Britain between the 1850s and 1900.

Victorian ingenuity also led to the development of other printed paper novelties. 'Peep shows', pop-up greeting cards and 'paper doll' books also became popular in this expanding consumer market. Dean & Son and another company called Darton dominated the British market until the 1870s when a German company, started by Raphael Tuck, started manufacturing beautifully printed and elaborate dioramas. This German company was soon followed into the European market by another German firm founded by Ernest Nister.

At that time, Nuremberg in Germany was the home of the most advanced colour printing in the world and had a rapidly developing toy industry. This combination of printing and intricate manufacturing skills meant that soon the Nister company, with its base at Nuremberg, was the centre for pop-up book production. Many of the Nister publications pandered to the 19th century parents' desire to give their children moral tales or didactic books but were nevertheless charming and ornate. However, into this restrained world of publishing burst the sardonic genius of Lothar Meggendorfer.

Meggendorfer, born in Munich, Germany in 1847, was an innovative master of paper engineering but he also had an acute eye for the absurdities of life. He managed, with highly ingenious and complicated mechanisms, to animate scenes that made wry comments about the people he portrayed. Despite their delicate structure and expense, his books sold throughout the world, being translated into many languages.

The First World War (1914 - 1918) brought to an end this golden era and it was several years before the publishing industry again regained the confidence to experiment with paper engineered books. During the inter-war years, the 'Bookano' series represented some of the most elaborate examples of pop-up books in Britain. In the USA 'Blue Ribbon' were most notable. Both these publishers used the occasional pop-up picture inserted into an otherwise traditional story book. The mechanics were elaborate but the strength and quality of the paper was poor (by modern standards) and so few of the books of this period have survived the roughness of childish appreciation.

The second World War presented another interruption to the development of the pop-up and apart from paper engineered greeting cards and relatively simple pop-up books, where the pictures 'pushed-up' without the need for glue-tabs, there was relatively little interest in the medium during the 1950s and early '60s. The chief entrepreneur responsible for the revival of the genre was an American called Waldorf Hunt. In 1974 he created a company called Intervisual Communications Inc. By using some of the best paper engineers in the world, such as Tor Lokvig, his company started to raise the calibre and quality of pop-up books. The beginning of the 'New Wave' of pop-up books that we still relish today, began with the revolutionary 'Haunted House' by Jan Pienkowski. Pienkowski stubbornly cajoled the paper engineer Tor Lokvig and Wally Hunt into publishing a pop-up book that contained not just one but several mechanisms on each page. Readers were enraptured by the book and it was a runaway success. A market existed that no one had realised before.

Soon afterwards, the British designer David Pelham had an idea inspired by the elaborately illustrated Victorian medical books with their coloured engravings and flaps (the same principle as the very first mediaeval flap books!). With the help of one of the greatest British paper engineers, Vic Duppa-White, they created 'The Human Body', an elaborate pop-up book designed to use 'animated' diagrams to communicate the way certain
human organs functioned.

Meanwhile Ron van der Meer, a Dutchman who had graduated from the Royal College of Art in London, was becoming well respected as an illustrator of children's books and a designer of educational toys. He realised that the strength of modern papers and glues meant that it would be possible to make an elaborate yet rugged pop-up book for children. Ron approached Wally Hunt with the idea for his first pop-up book ' Monster Island' . The novel feature of this book was that the child reader was taken on a 3-D journey. Rather than the pop-ups merely being passive illustrations, the reader had to interact with the mechanisms in the book to develop the story — an ideal opportunity for parent and child to experience the adventure together. With the techniques and market established for the modern pop-up, Ron persuaded Wally to publish his next idea, 'Sailing Ships' (1984), a truly sophisticated pop-up book aimed at the adult reader. The awe inspiring pop-ups of this book have meant that it became a prize-winning classic and is regularly reprinted. (This was also the very first pop-up book I worked on for Ron who had been my tutor at the Royal College of Art in London.)

With the market firmly established for pop-ups, there was an explosion in the number of publishers producing pop-up books. Many of them were second-rate and merely tried to cash in on the market but there were many very high quality books as well. The National Geographic series of 'Action Books', paper engineered by two masters of the art, Jim Diaz and John Strejan, set new standards of paper engineering. The next great leap-forward came again from Van der Meer Publishing - 'The Pack'. Ron's background in educational toys had always illustrated to him the truth of the old Chinese proverb "to hear is to forget, to see is to remember, to do is to understand". The new pack format was an elaborate combination of pop-ups, flaps, fold-outs and an explanatory cassette tape all contained within a book with a shallow tray in the back. The title was 'The Art Pack' and it set out to demystify the world of art by avoiding the pomposity of many art books without being patronising. The success of The Art Pack led to a succession of equally elaborate Packs which provided the core of his new publishing company's oeuvre. (Strictly speaking Van der Meer Publishing was a 'packager' rather than a publisher. The company 'packaged' projects and then sold them to the big publishing houses as a finished product.)

There are now many fine paper engineers exploring new ideas and ways of making intriguing books. One of the most ingenious of this new breed is Robert Sabuda who stunned the pop-up world with his minimalist graphics and elaborate mechanisms (The Christmas Alphabet 1996). The sheer elegance of his plain white pop-ups and die-cutting demonstrated how sophisticated pop-ups can look. (I still don't understand how he managed to include mechanisms that printers have always told me were impossible to die-cut!)

Just what the future for the pop-up book is, is anyone's guess. There was a dip in interest when the digital media took off but recently sales have revived as people realise the value of a tactile object to appreciate, share and interact with.