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1900 Das Rattentoechterlein

1903 Das Rattentöchterlein. Japanisches Kindermärchen. Liebig's Fleisch-Extract. Six numbered cards. £6.99 from Miroslav Goldner, Hillingdon, Middlexsex, UK, through eBay, March, '08.

The Question

The Sun

The Cloud

The Wind

The Wall

The Wedding

Here is the same set in German as the set in French that I got from Murray ten years earlier. The Liebig product shows up here separate from the scene in one of the lower corners. The German is typically careful. Five of the six cards, in the same format, have the message "Only to be a free gift for those who buy Liebig's Meat-Extract." The card with a different pattern (#1 of the six) speaks of the "peptone" produced in South America according to Prof. Dr. Kemmerich's system. Of the five similar versos, four indicate "hergestellt in Fray-Bentos und Zweig-Etablissements (Süd-Amerika)."  Each card describes its scene in a brief paragraph at the bottom of the card's back. The rats are dressed in sumptuous Japanese robes. The parents go to the sun, the cloud (with a great shock of white hair made of a cloud!), the wind, the wall (whose kimono is patterned in bricks!). In the last scene, we see a wedding that echoes the first card's family meeting.

Card #1 verso

Card #2 verso

Card #6 verso