19th century Coloring Book - a Surprise Castle exclusive

24 hand-illustrated scenes from the age of steam and gaslight, from a paddlewheel steamboat to a railway terminus glassed in iron arches.

The world stopped walking and started arriving by train.

A hand-drawn adult coloring book, 24 scenes that run from coal mines and locomotive sheds to Victorian parlors and grand harbor docks. The pace is set by piston stroke and the click of a telegraph key, not the next notification.

Step into a printer's workshop where a typesetter arranges type at his bench, herbs hanging from the rafters, the press standing ready behind him. Walk into a city park where a couple strolls past a wrought-iron gas lamp, a bench tucked among the trees. Pull up to a carpenter's shed where a craftsman cuts decorative scrollwork into a long board, shavings curling at his feet. Then onto the river, where a multi-tiered paddlewheel steamboat moves under a high stack of black smoke, passengers lining the white-painted decks.

The pages keep moving. A photographer outside an ornate stone building, large-format box camera mounted on its tripod, a black cloth waiting for the dive. A library where two librarians work on rolling ladders, cataloging volumes on a wall of shelves under arched windows. The shop floor of an industrial factory, men working between gears and overhead pulleys under a brick-vaulted roof. A line of soldiers marching across an open field in tall cylindrical caps, rifles shouldered.

Wander through the working day. A pharmacist at his counter weighing herbs on a brass scale, glass tinctures racked behind him. A tailor at his treadle sewing machine, a finished coat on a dress form, scissors and pins to hand. A formal garden centered on a tiered stone fountain, hedges shaped into low walls. The face of a coal mine where two miners with pickaxes work a seam under timber roof beams.

Keep going. An inventor's bench layered with electrical coils, brass instruments, and a half-built mechanism, blueprints curling at the edges. A grand Victorian ballroom with a chandelier, an orchestra at one end and couples turning across the floor. A scientist's study where a man works at a desk with an early electrical device beside a ticking clock. A professional kitchen with hanging copper, a chef writing the night's menu among fresh herbs. A landscape painter at his easel in a sunlit studio. A Victorian parlor with a marble fireplace, a heavy mirror, candelabra, and patterned wallpaper. A schoolroom where a teacher points at a slate while children write at their desks. A blacksmith striking the anvil under a brick forge. A steam locomotive halted under the iron-and-glass roof of a railway terminus, passengers and luggage on the platform. A horse-drawn carriage halting before a great Victorian mansion, the family climbing down. Two women in a parlor with embroidery hoops and a basket of silks between them. And to close, a busy harbor port where a sailing ship and a steamship share the same wharf, stevedores hauling crates and a crowd seeing off the boat.

There's a reason coloring sticks around. It gives a busy mind somewhere to land, and in this case that somewhere is the brass of an early dynamo or the scrollwork on a parlor mirror. Some pages are bold and forgiving. Others will eat a whole afternoon. Works fine with colored pencils, fine-tip markers, or gel pens.

If you know someone with a battered copy of Bleak House on the nightstand, a model-train enthusiast, or a friend who collects antique daguerreotypes, this is for them. It's also for the person who'd quietly rather shade a Victorian parlor on a Saturday than scroll.

All aboard.

Inside you'll find 24 scenes: a printer's workshop, a couple in a gas-lit park, a carpenter at his bench, a paddlewheel steamboat on a river, a photographer with a tripod camera, librarians cataloging on rolling ladders, an industrial factory floor, soldiers marching with tall caps, a pharmacist weighing herbs, a tailor at a treadle sewing machine, a tiered fountain in a formal garden, coal miners working a seam, an inventor's bench with electrical coils, a grand Victorian ballroom with orchestra, a scientist with an electrical device, a chef writing in a kitchen, a landscape painter at his easel, a Victorian parlor with fireplace, a schoolroom with teacher and children, a blacksmith at his forge, a steam locomotive at a railway terminus, a horse-drawn carriage at a Victorian mansion, women embroidering together, and a harbor port with sailing and steam ships.