- Title:
- Illustrirter London Führer oder eine Woche in London / A week in London. The Illustrated Guide / Guide illustré de Londres ou une semaine à London [sic] / El conductor o una semana en Londres
- Object name(s):
- Paper peepshow
- Brief description:
- Accordion-style paper peepshow of landmarks in London. 2 cut-out panels. 2 peep-holes. 6 removable slides. Hand-coloured etching. Expands to approximately 28 cm. Front-face: View of Bank of England with St Bartholomew by the Exchange. The German and English titles at top centre, French title at bottom left, and Spanish at bottom right. The view is surrounded by ornaments on the left and right. At the top there are parrots, and the Royal Arms appear at bottom centre. The front-face is decorated with embossed strips. The two peep-holes consist of two circular openings placed one above the other in the centre. They are fitted with lens. The front-face forms the lid of a cartonnage box containing the paper peepshow. Panel 1: an omnibus at the upper level; an equestrian, pedestrians and a carriage at the bottom level. Panel 2: a train at the upper level; a carriage, pedestrians and an equestrian at the bottom level. Removable slides contain views of landmarks in London with captions. Slide 1: views of London Bridge, Horse Guards, the Duke of York’s Column, the New Houses of Parliament without its ventilator tower, Limehouse Church. Slide 2: Southwark Church, Bank of England, Westminster Hospital, Lambeth Palace, the City of London School. Slide 3: the Upper Pool, Somerset House, the Coal Exchange, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s viewed from Ludgate Circus. Slide 4: Regent’s Park, St James’s Park, Monument, the Custom House, St Martin-in-the-Fields. Slide 5: the Quadrant, Somerset House, St Dunstan-in-the-East, Westminster Hall, St Mary Cree Church (the view is actually of St Katherine Cree Church). Slide 6: exterior of the rejected Great Exhibition building design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, shown without its large dome. The view is labelled ‘the Crystal Palace’; interior view of the Crystal Palace as constructed according to Joseph Paxton’s design.
- Collection:
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Associated concept:
- National Art Library
- Associated concept:
- Optical toys
- Associated concept:
- Paper Peepshow
- Associated concept:
- London
- Credit line:
- Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from the collections of Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2016.
- Dimension:
- Height
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 15.5
- Dimension:
- Width
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 21.5
- Dimension:
- Length
- Dimension measured part:
- fully extended
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 28
- Material:
- paper
- Object history note:
- Part of the Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner Collection, collected over 30 years and given to the V&A Museum through the government's Cultural Gift Scheme, 2016.
- Object name:
- Paper peepshow
- Object number:
- Gestetner 175
- Object production date:
- ca.1851
- Date - association:
- made
- Date - earliest / single:
- 1846-01-01
- Date - latest:
- 1855-12-31
- Object production place:
- Germany
- Place association:
- made
- Other number:
- 38041016070211
- Other number type:
- NAL barcode
- Physical description:
- Accordion-style paper peepshow of landmarks in London. 2 cut-out panels. 2 peep-holes. 6 removable slides. Hand-coloured etching. Expands to approximately 28 cm. Front-face: View of Bank of England with St Bartholomew by the Exchange. The German and English titles at top centre, French title at bottom left, and Spanish at bottom right. The view is surrounded by ornaments on the left and right. At the top there are parrots, and the Royal Arms appear at bottom centre. The front-face is decorated with embossed strips. The two peep-holes consist of two circular openings placed one above the other in the centre. They are fitted with lens. The front-face forms the lid of a cartonnage box containing the paper peepshow. Panel 1: an omnibus at the upper level; an equestrian, pedestrians and a carriage at the bottom level. Panel 2: a train at the upper level; a carriage, pedestrians and an equestrian at the bottom level. Removable slides contain views of landmarks in London with captions. Slide 1: views of London Bridge, Horse Guards, the Duke of York’s Column, the New Houses of Parliament without its ventilator tower, Limehouse Church. Slide 2: Southwark Church, Bank of England, Westminster Hospital, Lambeth Palace, the City of London School. Slide 3: the Upper Pool, Somerset House, the Coal Exchange, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s viewed from Ludgate Circus. Slide 4: Regent’s Park, St James’s Park, Monument, the Custom House, St Martin-in-the-Fields. Slide 5: the Quadrant, Somerset House, St Dunstan-in-the-East, Westminster Hall, St Mary Cree Church (the view is actually of St Katherine Cree Church). Slide 6: exterior of the rejected Great Exhibition building design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, shown without its large dome. The view is labelled ‘the Crystal Palace’; interior view of the Crystal Palace as constructed according to Joseph Paxton’s design.
- Responsible department/section:
- NAL
- Text reason:
- Collections online record
- Text:
- As its name suggests, this paper peepshow is essentially a concise illustrated guide book to London. A busy street scene features on the front, with Sir John Soane’s Bank of England with St Bartholomew by the Exchange in the background. London landmarks from both sides of the Thames are depicted on six removable slides, which one can insert into the peepshow to change the backdrop. Although the design of the paper peepshow is clever and interactive, it does not take into account the restrictions imposed by the peep-holes and the two fixed cut-out panels in the front whose staffage, consisting of vehicles and passers-by, comes in the way of the view. This paper peepshow, with titles in four languages, was intended for an international audience: for those who wanted a souvenir of their time in London as well as those who could not afford to travel. In the middle of the nineteenth century, with such monuments as the Thames Tunnel and the Crystal Palace, London would have been a much-desired travel destination for both visitors from Britain and abroad. Interestingly, the sixth removable slide includes a view of not only the Crystal Palace as constructed according to Joseph Paxton’s design, but also an image of the rejected design of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Brunel assisted his father, Marc, in the construction of the Thames Tunnel, which is the most popular subject matter of the paper peepshow.
- Text reason:
- Summary description
- User's reference:
- Reference:
- R. Hyde, Paper Peepshows. The Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner Collection (Woodbridge: The Antique Collectors' Club, 2015), cat. 175.
Persistent shareable link for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/24904eb5-7f54-3f1f-8c58-d1a029d39852
Use licence for this record: CC BY-NC
Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/24904eb5-7f54-3f1f-8c58-d1a029d39852, Victoria and Albert Museum, CC BY-NC
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