MICKEY MOUSE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT by Walt Disney Studios - 1933

New York: Blue Ribbon, 1933. First edition. Very good in very good jacket.. Major early Disney pop-up, part of the pioneering Blue Ribbon movable book project that gave pop-ups their official name. In her study of movable books, Jacqueline Reid-Walsh says that "the term 'pop-up book' is a modern one of American coinage that emerged in the 1930s when Blue Ribbon Publishing worked with the Disney studio to loosely adapt popular fairy tales into a movable book format." (Ellen Rubin notes a ca. 1912 British "Pop-Up Book," not widely known but predating this; Blue Ribbon introduced the term into copyright.)
For this ambitious paper engineering project, Disney incorporated their star character into a classic setting of fable: the world of King Arthur. The work balances two of Disney's core strategies, adopted early in its formation and key to its success: reinventing familiar tales, but also capitalizing on the momentum of their most successful new characters. A delicate book, it is difficult to find in collectible condition, complete with the original dust jacket and all pop-ups intact. 9.5'' x 7.25''. Original color pictorial boards. In original color pictorial dust jacket. Pictorial endpapers. Illustrated with full page and in-text color images and 4 glorious double-page pop-ups (illustrated front and back). 48 pages. Housed in custom slipcase with design mimicking original dust jacket. Ink gift inscription, dated year of publication, on front pastedown. Some cracking in gutters (as common for this book), a bit of fingersoil to text; moderate edgewear to boards and jacket, with a chip to jacket spine head and a couple closed tears to front panel.