HARLEQUINADE - MANUSCRIPT Late eighteenth century pictorial manuscript flap-book, ink on laid paper, one sheet with 20 images, cut and folded to reveal 15 changing scenes, all with 4-line accompanying verse, laid down on old manuscript sheet with neat archival repairs to folds, overall sheet 320 x 400mm. (160 x 400m. when closed), late eighteenth century A rare illustrated manuscript "harlequinade" or "metamorphoses", a "spectacular type of illustrated book that make extensive use of various techniques to engage young readers through multimedia presentations of words and images" (Jacqueline Reid-Walsh, 'Eighteenth-Century Flap Books for Children. Allegorical Metamorphosis and Spectacular Transformation', in The Princeton University Library Chronicle, Vol. 68, No. 3, Spring 2007). The five metamorphosing subjects are Adam (to Eve, to mermaid), the opening verse being "Here Adam comes upon the stage/and Eve out of his side/which was to him in marriage give[e]n/Turn up and see the Bride; Roaring lion (to griffin, to eagle with baby in claws); young man "escaped from the eagles claws" (to heart "oppressed with grief", to a purse of gold and silver); a gentleman holding the purse of gold (to sick man with skeleton legs, to figure of death with crown and holding an arrow and an hourglass); Acteon "a mighty hunter" (to stag, to dog, with final verse "I served Acteon long/He gave me food/But still at length/I suck'd his life and blood"). Each verse encourages the reader to turn the next flap to reveal a changing scene.