- Title:
- Tunnel Views
- Object name(s):
- Paper peepshow
- Brief description:
- Accordion-style paper peepshow of the Thames Tunnel as it would appear when completed. 5 cut-out panels. 1 peep-hole. Hand-coloured lithograph. In a slipcase. Expands to approximately 61 cm. Slipcase: Rainbow background. A label in the centre, and carries the title at the top. Beneath the title is a print of the longitudinal view of the tunnellers at the working face and tunnelling shield. The monogram ‘JMB’ at the bottom. Front-face: Plain pink label with several layers of borders. The peep-hole consists of a single large oval opening in the centre. In the peep-hole is a double-shutter. Panel 1: a man descending the stairs on the left, two men in the right archway. Panel 2: in the left archway, a carriage with three passengers heading away from us, and a man; a man who appears to be wheeling a barrow in the right archway. Panel 3: an equestrian in the left archway heading away from us; a single pedestrian in the right archway, and an open-carriage with three passengers heading towards us. Panel 4: a man in the left archway; a man and two equestrians in the right archway. Panel 5: a man accompanying a loaded cart in the left archway; a man in uniform in the right archway. Back panel: pedestrians and a coach and a wagon in the Tunnel archways. The reverse side is pasted with a decorative label with flowers and patterns.
- 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:
- 11.5
- Dimension:
- Width
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 14.5
- Dimension:
- Length
- Dimension measured part:
- fully extended
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 61
- 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 117
- Object production date:
- ca. 1835
- Date - association:
- published
- Date - earliest / single:
- 1830-01-01
- Date - latest:
- 1839-12-31
- Object production person:
- JMB
- Person's association:
- publisher
- Object production place:
- Germany
- Other number:
- 38041016059255
- Other number type:
- NAL barcode
- Physical description:
- Accordion-style paper peepshow of the Thames Tunnel as it would appear when completed. 5 cut-out panels. 1 peep-hole. Hand-coloured lithograph. In a slipcase. Expands to approximately 61 cm. Slipcase: Rainbow background. A label in the centre, and carries the title at the top. Beneath the title is a print of the longitudinal view of the tunnellers at the working face and tunnelling shield. The monogram ‘JMB’ at the bottom. Front-face: Plain pink label with several layers of borders. The peep-hole consists of a single large oval opening in the centre. In the peep-hole is a double-shutter. Panel 1: a man descending the stairs on the left, two men in the right archway. Panel 2: in the left archway, a carriage with three passengers heading away from us, and a man; a man who appears to be wheeling a barrow in the right archway. Panel 3: an equestrian in the left archway heading away from us; a single pedestrian in the right archway, and an open-carriage with three passengers heading towards us. Panel 4: a man in the left archway; a man and two equestrians in the right archway. Panel 5: a man accompanying a loaded cart in the left archway; a man in uniform in the right archway. Back panel: pedestrians and a coach and a wagon in the Tunnel archways. The reverse side is pasted with a decorative label with flowers and patterns.
- 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 the paper peepshow belongs 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 with Rotherhithe on the south began on the Rotherhithe shaft in March 1825. 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. Outside of Great Britain, a substantial amount of Thames Tunnel paper peepshows was produced in Germany. Many of these works took inspiration from British examples: here, for instance, the first panel and the depiction of the arches clearly derive from a peepshows such as Gestetner 195,(see references), while the rest of the figures are new. Importantly, the publisher included the image of workers underground and the tunnelling shield. The shield was the piece of machinery designed by the principal engineer Marc Isambard Brunel to dig and construct the Tunnel. The view derives from Plate 3 from Zeichnungen und Notizen von den Arbeiten an dem Gange unter der Themse von Rotherhithe nach Wapping, London (Drawings and Notes from the Work on the Passage under the Thames from Rotherhithe to Wapping, London) published in 1827. This image highlights the engineering ingenuity of the Tunnel, which was also one of the important factors that attracted people’s interest in this project. Although a German work, it has an English title, and was probably intended for the British market. 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. Although the exterior appearance of this work is different from that of Gestetner 81, the cut-out panels of this paper peepshow are essentially the reverse copy of it. This work also survives in a slightly different state (Gestetner 152) and was used for a two-level paper peepshow (Gestetner 118). Apart from having an English title, it is essentially a duplicate of Gestetner 116.
- 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. 117.
- User's reference:
- Reference:
- Outside of Great Britain, a substantial amount of Thames Tunnel paper peepshows was produced in Germany. Many of these works took inspiration from British examples: here, for instance, the first panel and the depiction of the arches clearly derive from a 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/7cd4d905-1646-31fc-9825-cf2884d6fcf8
Use licence for this record: CC BY-NC
Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/7cd4d905-1646-31fc-9825-cf2884d6fcf8, Victoria and Albert Museum, CC BY-NC
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