[5 peepshows] [toy]

Library's copy without optical box.
Attributed to the firm of engraver and publisher, Martin Engelbrecht, Augsburg. He obtained an imperial privilege to publish peep-shows from 1719, thereby eliminating any competition from other publishing houses. Artists Jeremias Wachsmuth or David Nessenthaler may have collaborated on the illustrations. The peep-shows were published in three formats: Large format, ca. 15.5 x 20.8 cm ; medium format, ca. 9.2 x 14.3 cm ; and small format, ca. 7.3 x 9.0 cm. The large and medium formats were published with a title page, while no title pages are known to have been printed for the small format. Also, the small format cards do not have any serial numbers, possibly due to cropping of the margins.
These five sets of peep-shows are in the small format. Each contains six etchings, recently mounted in accordion form; all of the prints are hand-colored and have been cut out, except for the sixth which forms the background and have the number 6 printed in the lower margins. The prints are without any text or title page, and have no impressum in the lower margins. The sets are wrapped in contemporary laid paper with the German titles written in black ink. Numbers 3 and 4 have a modern label with the publisher's name, approximate dates, and the titles translated into English, attached to the wrappers.
The five sets show scenes from every day life: 1.Scholars and gentlemen in a library, book shelves along the walls and two globes on a table (the library owns another copy in the medium format: PML 88580); 2. Shipping activities around a port with a castle in the background; 3. Fencing exercises in a park-like setting; 4. A military camp and soldiers exercising outside a fortress; 5. An unidentified town with cobblestone streets, a fountain, inhabitants of different trades, and a horse carriage leaving town.