A group of nine 19th and 20th century paper tunnel books
lot includes nine paper hand-made accordion-style paper peepshow (tunnel books): 1. Paris, La Nuit. Paris: 1860. with six images, housed in plexiglass box. 2. Constantinopel, published, ca. 1840. six panel hand colored accordion peep panorama on laid paper of the Turkish capitol. 3. A six panel hand colored port scene accordion peep in a plexiglass box. 4. An eight panel hand colored accordion peep on laid paper; published in Austria by HF M?ller ca. 1824-25, depicting an idyllic garden leading to a large country house. 5. Thompson, I. R. The Ceremony of Interring His Majesty William the 4th in the Chapel of St. George, Windsor. Hand-colored engraved peep show, missing rear cover complete with 5 intervening sheets. London: Charles Essex, circa 1838. 6. Der Nurnberger Thriftmarkt; La foix avant Noel, Christmas Fair. published ca. 1840. in cartonnage boxed; a six panel hand colored tunnel book. 7. Nurnbergerr Guckastla Nr. 2. reprinted from the 1890 tunnel book. 8. The Two Brothers by Lewis Carroll. ( a Peep Show) by Marylin Poole Adams. Berkeley: The Poole Press: 1994. number 35 of 65 copies, designed, illustrated, letterpress printed, hand-bound, and signed by the artist, four panel peep-show at rear, original velvet, 8vo. 9. The Great London Exhibition of Industry, 1851. published in Germany. hand colored on laid paper. Titled in English, French, and German. The Great Exhibition in 1851 was the first international exhibition of manufactured products. Organized by Henry Cole and Prince Albert, it was held in the purpose-built Crystal Palace in Hyde Park in London. Many of the objects in the Exhibition were used as the first collection for the South Kensington Museum which opened 1857 and later became the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Unlike their British counterparts, German publishers seemed much less concerned about the accuracy of the image or fine details used in the paper peepshow. The cut-out panels in this work depict the interior of the Crystal Palace as the artist imagined it might be. Yet not everything is the artist?s fantasy, and the large tree on the back panel can be identified as one of the famous ?Sibthorpe Elms?. The ultra-Tory right-wing MP Colonel Charles de Laet Waldo Sibthorpe protested the felling of the elm trees on the proposed site for the Great Exhibition. In response, the architect Joseph Paxton simply built the Crystal Palace over the elms by fitting out the Transept with a barrel roof.
Enclosing the paper peepshow in a cartonnage box was a basic format used by German manufacturers. Also common is the practice of giving titles in German, French, and English, as the publishers aimed their products at an international market.
largest 11 1/2 x 9 1/2in (29 x 24cm)