Magin Lantern - Between art and knick-knack

Between Art and Knick-knack.

Useful and decorative objects, the valuable to the worthless, the wonderful to the hideous, but always with a connection to the magic lantern.	Luikerwaal-mug. White pottery mug printed with the logo of the Dutch Magic Lantern site 'de Luikerwaal'. Sizes: diameter: 8 cm. height: 9,5 cm.
Pencil sharpener. Die cast metal pencil sharpener in the shape of a vintage Magic Lantern Projector. Lens moves in and out by means of a real rack and pinion focusing system and the handle turns around. Overall height approx. 3 1/2" (8,25 cm). Nice details.

Lears' Magic Lantern Plate. A patterned plate from "Lears' Victorian Magic Lantern Slide" collection. This plate is provided with a picture of London Bridge. The Lears were professional lanternists who operated in the UK in the 1970's. They were famous for their shows on a canal narrow boat and renowned for the quality of their material and projection skills. Plates like these were made to sell on their narrow boat to people who attended their shows.

Plate featuring an illustration from Lears Victorian Magic Lantern Slide Collection. This plate depicts a picture entitled The Four Seasons with a verse. Diameter 9" (c. 23 cm).		This plate depicts a picture entitled Spring. Diameter 9" (c. 23 cm). Three other plates show the other three seasons.

French thimble c. 1850. This is a very rare French silver thimble with a scene from the fable of Florian "Le singe qui montre la lanterne magique" (The monkey displaying the magic lantern). Waffle pattern top and border. Depicted are the monkey with a magic lantern and an audience represented by a turkey, a cat and a dog.

This thimble was a 1970s re-isssue of the original design, made by the Parisian silversmiths Lenain and Company, formerly of 16, rue Dupetit-Thouars, Paris. Stamped with the French export Mercury Head silver hallmark used for 800/1000 pure silver, and, in the cartouche, 9 (the size), the maker's mark LF (Lenain Frères) with 2 interlaced 'Ls' and FRANCE. Gilded on the inside. Height approx. 2.7 cm; internal base diameter approx 1.6 cm; weight 7.4 grams.
	French tapestry, c. 1890. Another object that is related to Florian's famous fable. A beautiful tapestry depicting the monkey and its lantern in action. Dimensions 20.4 x 24.8 inches (52 x 62 cm). Probably the tapestry was intended to be used in the nursery.

Postage stamp depicting a magic lantern made by Gebrüder Bing Nürnberg c. 1900.
Special edition of the Austrian post office. Very low circulation !

Dutch ceramic tiles.

Two vintage Dutch tiles that display an itinerant lanternist carrying a magic lantern, accompanied by a young man (his helper?). These tiles are in the typical Dutch "Delfts blauw" style (Delft's blue). They are definitely of the 19th C. period and may even go back to the 18th C. Dimensions are 13 x 13 x 0.7 cm or 5 x 5 x 1/4 inches.

Meissen figurine.

A very rare porcelain Meissen figurine of a lanternist carrying the magic lantern on his back while playing the hurdy-gurdy. It measures 15 cm tall. It's marked at the bottom with the crossed swords (Meissen's trade mark) and dated pre 1910.

Meissen porcelain is produced at their factory near Dresden in Germany, from 1710 until the present day. It was the first successfully produced true porcelain in Europe.


Heavy bronze plaque awarded by the Hackney Photographic Society to F.W. Burt as a prize for making lantern slides. The plaque itself is 4.5" wide x 4.5 " long and 6/16" thick (11.44 x 11.44 x 0.9 cm). The casing with a green velvet pillow is 5 5/8" x 5.5" tall (14.3 x 14 cm).

French board game A very special French board game: "LE TOUR DE FRANCE" (Jeu instructif et amusant - An instructive and amusing game). In one of the corners a nice engraving depicting a DUBOSQ science magic lantern, made c. 1883 in Paris by Louis Jules Dubosq (left). "Réception d'une dépèche par pigeon voyageur à l'état-major" (Reception of a message by homing pigeon at the headquarters). During the Franco-German war of 1870/71 pigeons were used for a kind of air-mail. As the "PIGEONGRAMMES" were printed on a microfilm, the received message had to be enlarged by means of a magic lantern to make it readable. The other engravings are scenes from Jeanne d'Arc and of the Battle of Wagram (1809) of Napoleon. Size: 30" x 22" (73.5 x 56 cm).
	Brooch pin made from a vintage magic lantern glass slide (below), featuring an ornately uniformed man riding a frog. Two inches tall. The image area is ringed with rhinestones, bar pin back.
Paperweight An early 3" (c. 7.5 cm) diameter glass paperweight. The bottom is recessed , etched and advertising: 'Magic Lanterns Photo Supplies - PARTRIDGE - 226 Bush St. San Francisco.'
	French powder-compact. Early French hand coloured combination of a powder-box and an optical tool. The lady in blue has a magic lantern in her lap that projects images of two lovers onto the side of a tomb. (How did one come up with such a thing?) This box measures c. 1.5" high by 4" wide (4 x 10 cm) and dates to the mid 19th Century.



La Fillette au Moulin (The Girl at the Windmill) after the 18th-century French painter Jean Baptiste Chardin. Original French porcelain, circa 1860. Sizes 15 x 13.5 cm.

Thaumatrope. An antique optical toy.

Beautiful table lamp with square magic lantern slides. The foot is made of metal (bronze/brass). The shade is made of stained glass, lantern slides interspersed with lightly marbled plastic slides. The height is about 45 cm, the diameter of the shade is 29 cm. The lamp is a light bulb with a large fitting (E27).

This rare magic lantern slide display table lamp holds twelve 3.25" x 4.25" slides and was probably manufactured sometime between 1910 and 1920. A makers plate attached to the bottom reads: "Norman D. Bishop, Made in Los Angeles".


The top rotates to show the twelve slides. The wedge shaped top panels are leaded glass. Between every other slag glass panel there is a ring where some kind of (glass bead?) shade or fringe may have hung. There are also 12 tiny attachment points which may have served the same purpose. The lantern slides are inserted and removed from the outside, not the inside, and the slag glass panels are held in by bent metal tabs.

Two embroidered long magic lantern slides A funny and creative embroidery on ecru-coloured cheese linen, dimensions 65 x 27 cm.



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