Accession number
PML 88495
Published
[France], [ca. 1850]
Credit line
Gift of Julia P. Wightman, 1991.
Notes
Title from lid of box.
The polyorama panoptique, a French toy viewing device, was popular from the 1820s through the 1850s. It was first sold in 1822 as a souvenir to visitors of the auditorium-size diorama designed by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. The Parisian optician, Lemaire, is credited with the invention of the device. The wooden box has an eye-sized viewing lens mounted in polished wood, attached to paper bellows. The lens is adjusted by means of a wooden slide fitted into a slot and attached to the bottom of the box. The device includes two separate doors, at top and back, which allows the user to control the degree and direction of light, thereby creating night and day scenes.
Eight slides are housed in the box with a slot at the back to place the slide, selected for viewing. The slides are pierced with small holes and additions of color applied on the verso, and they are illuminated when the light source moves from the front to the back.
Eight hand-colored, lithographed thin paper slides, which are mounted in wooden frames, are labeled on the verso. Two of them are replacements: Place Vendôme (different typeface on label) and Lenoir, Julia P. Wightman's childhood home, 1952.
Library's copy lacking a printed instruction sheet.
"Mettez le crochet en cuivre dans le trou pratiqué dans l'épaisseur de ce volet"-- label on back of box.
The polyorama panoptique, a French toy viewing device, was popular from the 1820s through the 1850s. It was first sold in 1822 as a souvenir to visitors of the auditorium-size diorama designed by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. The Parisian optician, Lemaire, is credited with the invention of the device. The wooden box has an eye-sized viewing lens mounted in polished wood, attached to paper bellows. The lens is adjusted by means of a wooden slide fitted into a slot and attached to the bottom of the box. The device includes two separate doors, at top and back, which allows the user to control the degree and direction of light, thereby creating night and day scenes.
Eight slides are housed in the box with a slot at the back to place the slide, selected for viewing. The slides are pierced with small holes and additions of color applied on the verso, and they are illuminated when the light source moves from the front to the back.
Eight hand-colored, lithographed thin paper slides, which are mounted in wooden frames, are labeled on the verso. Two of them are replacements: Place Vendôme (different typeface on label) and Lenoir, Julia P. Wightman's childhood home, 1952.
Library's copy lacking a printed instruction sheet.
"Mettez le crochet en cuivre dans le trou pratiqué dans l'épaisseur de ce volet"-- label on back of box.
Description
1 toy : wood and paper, col. ill. (lithographs) ; 12.8 height x 16 width x 13.5 depth (pulled out: 22) cm
Provenance
From the library of Julia P. Wightman.
Binding
Publisher's wooden box covered in green paper, hinged at the back and top, black paper title label, stamped in beige. Gold leaf is applied to the inside of the lid.
Classification
Catalog link
Department