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Title:
Optique No. 6 Pont sous la Tamise
Object name(s):
Paper peepshow
Brief description:
Accordion-style paper peepshow of the Thames Tunnel as it would appear when completed. 4 cut-out panels. 1 peep-hole. Hand-coloured line engraving and aquatint. In a slipcase. Expands to approximately 53.5 cm. Slipcase: marbled background, a label with the title in the centre. Front-face: view of the Thames from Blackfriars Bridge towards London Bridge. The City with St Paul’s Cathedral is on the left and Southwark on the right. The English title appears on a scroll in the sky, while the French one is at the bottom inside the peep-hole. The peep-hole consists of a rounded rectangular-shaped hole set on an imagined parapet. Beneath the peep-hole is a short description of the Thames Tunnel in italicised French. Panel 1: two men going up the stairs on the right; a couple standing in the centre; a man descending the stairs with a dog on the left. Panel 2: a coach with three passengers, drawn by two horses, and a man in the right archway; a man and a woman in the left archway. Panel 3: a man carrying pails and two men conversing in the right archway; a loaded wagon and a man in the left archway. Panel 4: an equestrian in the right archway, a single pedestrian in the left archway. Back panel: pedestrians and a vehicle in the Tunnel archways. The vendor’s label ‘Gardet, Md. Papetier, Rue Vivienne No. 10 à Paris’ on the reverse of the back panel.
Collection:
Victoria and Albert Museum
Associated concept:
National Art Library
Associated concept:
Optical toys
Associated concept:
Paper Peepshow
Associated concept:
Thames Tunnel
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:
12
Dimension:
Width
Dimension measurement unit:
cm
Dimension value:
14.4
Dimension:
Length
Dimension measured part:
fully extended
Dimension measurement unit:
cm
Dimension value:
53.5
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 27
Object production date:
ca. 1828
Date - association:
published
Date - earliest / single:
1823-01-01
Date - latest:
1832-12-31
Other number:
38041016059297
Other number type:
NAL barcode
Physical description:
Accordion-style paper peepshow of the Thames Tunnel as it would appear when completed. 4 cut-out panels. 1 peep-hole. Hand-coloured line engraving and aquatint. In a slipcase. Expands to approximately 53.5 cm. Slipcase: marbled background, a label with the title in the centre. Front-face: view of the Thames from Blackfriars Bridge towards London Bridge. The City with St Paul’s Cathedral is on the left and Southwark on the right. The English title appears on a scroll in the sky, while the French one is at the bottom inside the peep-hole. The peep-hole consists of a rounded rectangular-shaped hole set on an imagined parapet. Beneath the peep-hole is a short description of the Thames Tunnel in italicised French. Panel 1: two men going up the stairs on the right; a couple standing in the centre; a man descending the stairs with a dog on the left. Panel 2: a coach with three passengers, drawn by two horses, and a man in the right archway; a man and a woman in the left archway. Panel 3: a man carrying pails and two men conversing in the right archway; a loaded wagon and a man in the left archway. Panel 4: an equestrian in the right archway, a single pedestrian in the left archway. Back panel: pedestrians and a vehicle in the Tunnel archways. The vendor’s label ‘Gardet, Md. Papetier, Rue Vivienne No. 10 à Paris’ on the reverse of the back panel.
Responsible department/section:
NAL
Text reason:
Collections online record
Text:
The Thames Tunnel was an engineering project that spurred great public excitement both in Great Britain and abroad, and paper peepshows belonged to the wide range of souvenirs produced to cater for the public’s interest. The construction of the Thames Tunnel connecting Wapping on the north bank with Rotherhithe to the south was authorised in 1824. Work began on the Rotherhithe shaft in March 1825, and the first Thames Tunnel paper peepshow appeared as early as 16 June of the same year in London, showing how the finished work would look. The paper peepshow’s shape effectively conveys the shape of the Tunnel and makes it the perfect device to render this type of monumental structure. Between ca. 1825 and ca. 1833, a series of paper peepshows numbered 1 to 13 was published in France under the name of ‘Optiques’. As they share many physical characteristics, they may have come from the same publisher. This example is the only one in the series to be dedicated to a non-French subject matter. The inscription on the front points out that the principal engineer Marc Isambard Brunel was born in France. This may have been a reason why the publisher chose to add the Thames Tunnel to the series’ otherwise French attractions, but it also reflects the great interest in the Tunnel outside of Great Britain. Although a French production, this work has its title also in English, which suggests that an international market was intended. Compared to Tunnel paper peepshows produced in Great Britain, it is more finely executed, with crisper outlines and more detail. If the Thames view on the front is subtly rendered, the cut-out panels take much inspiration from contemporary British paper peepshows, such as Gestetner 195, (see references). In turn it was used as inspiration by a few German examples (see Gestetner 82 and Gestetner 83). Typical of Thames Tunnel paper peepshows produced before the completion of the actual Tunnel, this work presents a projected rather than realistic view. The coaches and horses shown in the paper peepshow, for instance, were never able to enter the Tunnel in reality, as a ramp was never built. The work is ascribed to A. Giroux et Cie in William Duck’s 1988 catalogue, while another copy of it bears the vendor’s label of ‘Susse, Place de la Bourse, Paris’ (Hyde, 96).
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. 27.
User's reference:
Reference:
If the Thames view on the front is subtly rendered, the cut-out panels take much inspiration from contemporary British paper peepshows, such as Gestetner 195: http://web.archive.org/web/20230131143427/https:// collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1418257/the-tunnel-paper- peepshow-brown-t/

Persistent shareable link for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/255b1843-4a2d-3674-822e-c84d91af6343

Use licence for this record: CC BY-NC

Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/255b1843-4a2d-3674-822e-c84d91af6343, Victoria and Albert Museum, CC BY-NC

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