Accession No
6528
Brief Description
box of 12 hand-painted didactic astronomical magic lantern slides, English [attributed], 1840 (c)
Origin
England [attributed]
Maker
Class
astronomy; optical; demonstration
Earliest Date
1811
Latest Date
1845
Inscription Date
Material
wood (pine; mahogany (?)); glass; paint; ink
Dimensions
[Box:] 238mm (l) x 95mm (d) x 72mm (t) [Slide 6528.1-10] 217mm (l) x 5mm (d) x 58mm (t) [Slide 6528.11-12] 217mm (l) x 9mm (d) x 58mm (t)
Special Collection
Provenance
Purchased from Christie’s South Kensington, 85 Old Brompton Road, London, SW7 3LD. Travel, Science and Natural History sale, 25/04/2012, lot no. 76.
Inscription
[6528.1] “System of Ptolemy”; “Sys. of Tycho Brahe”; “Sys. of Herschel”.
[6528.2] “Sun. 1 million ?????”; “Mercury 37 mil.”; “Venus 68”.
[6528.3] “Earth 95”; “Mars 144-5”; “4 asteroids Vesta Juno Pallas Ceres”.
[6528.4] “Jupiter 490-96”; “Saturn 900-8”; “Uranus 1800”.
[6528.5] “Halley’s Comet”; “Comet of 1811”; “Comet of 1680”.
[6528.6] “Aries S”; “Cancer s”; “Libra A”; “Capricornus W”.
[6528.7] “Rotundity of the Earth”; “Seasons sASw”; “Phases of the Moon”.
[6528.8] “New Moon”; “Half Moon”; “Full Moon”.
[6528.9] “Tides”.
[6528.11] “Eclipses of the Sun”.
[6528.12] “Moon’s eclipses”.
Description Notes
Box of 12 hand-painted didactic astronomical magic lantern slides, [English], c. 1840.
Hand-made slides, colour manuscript illustrations painted on glass, with manuscript black ink labelling. Slides are numbered 1 through 12. Ten static slides [6528.1-10]and two animated slides [6528.11-12].
[6528.1] Illustration of three different proposed systems of astronomy: “System of Ptolemy”; “Sys. of Tycho Brahe”; “Sys. of Herschel”.
[6528.2] Illustration of three solar system bodies with average orbital distances from sun in miles: “Sun. 1 million ?????”; “Mercury 37 mil.”; “Venus 68”.
[6528.3] Illustration of solar system bodies with average orbital distances from sun in miles: “Earth 95”; “Mars 144-5”; “4 asteroids Vesta Juno Pallas Ceres”.
[6528.4] Illustration of solar system bodies with average orbital distances from sun in miles: “Jupiter 490-96”; “Saturn 900-8”; “Uranus 1800”.
[6528.5] Illustration of three comets: “Halley’s Comet”; “Comet of 1811”; “Comet of 1680”.
[6528.6] Illustration of four constellations: “Aries S”; “Cancer s”; “Libra A”; “Capricornus W”.
[6528.7] Illustration of three astronomical phenomena: “Rotundity of the Earth”; “Seasons sASw”; “Phases of the Moon”.
[6528.8] Illustration of three phases of the Moon: “New Moon”; “Half Moon”; “Full Moon”.
[6528.9] Illustration of solar and lunar influence on tides: “Tides”.
[6528.10] Illustration of solar and lunar eclipse causes: [No inscription].
[6528.11] Animated illustration of three types of eclipse of the sun. Static sun at centre with sliding piece of glass on top with three different types of Moon position to be moved across sun - full eclipse, partial eclipse, and annular eclipse: “Eclipses of the Sun”.
[6528.12] Animated illustration of lunar eclipse. Static Moon at centre with sliding piece of glass on top with three different types of Earth shadow to be moved across Moon - full eclipse, partial eclipse covering majority of Moon, and partial eclipse covering minority of Moon. With moving clouds on shadow slide: “Moon’s eclipses”.
Condition: good/fair. Complete.
References
Events
Description
Magic lanterns are an early type of image projector. They use a powerful light source to project images onto a screen or wall. They were the precursors to modern slide, overhead and motion picture projectors. Although first developed in the 17th century, it was in the late 18th and 19th centuries that the design of the instrument became developed enough to make magic lantern shows a popular form of general entertainment and scientific and artistic education.
The basic elements of a magic lantern are a metal or wooden body, a light source, a condensing lens, a focusing lens, and interchangeable slides that were commonly produced in sets. Early lantern slides were hand painted on glass, but by the late nineteenth century a number of companies were mass producing slide sets utilising photographic transparencies. Hand cranked mechanisms were sometimes also built into the slides to produce elaborate animated effects. Slide sets might show recent events, exotic locations from around the world, or illustrate tales and fables. For scientific lecturers, the magic lantern was an invaluable instrument for illustrating their public talks, enabling the projection of spectacular astronomical images or massive diagrams of plants and animals.
Slide sets like this one would have been used to illustrate an astronomical lecture, a popular form of public entertainment and education in the early-Victorian era. Two of the slides contain movable parts, enabling the lecturer to animate different types of lunar and solar eclipse.
03/04/2014
Created by: Joshua Nall on 03/04/2014
FM:47038
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