Le phénakisticope [toy].

Title from lid of box.
Optical toy invented by Joseph Plateau ca. 1830. Alphonse Giroux introduces them first as Phenakisticope, later as Phenakistiscope (deceptive viewer). The Library's version uses two spinning discs attached vertically to a spindle. One disc is decorated with a series of radial drawings of figures in successive stages of movement, the other disc has radial slits cut into the disc. Standing in front of a mirror, the user would spin the disc, then peer through the slits on the second disc, and discover the illusion of moving figures.
Twenty hand-colored paper discs (18-18.5 cm in diam.) nine of them numbered (1-3, 5-7, 10-12) and with Alph. Giroux stamp on the back, two are two-sided without numbers and stamp, and nine of a thicker stock of paper, un-numbered, and without the Giroux stamp; one disc of purple paper (22.2 cm in diam.) with ten cut-out rectangular slits; one wood framed mirror (23.3 x 19.8 cm); and one spindle with wooden handle.
Date from Stafford and Terpak.