Magic lantern - Life model sets

part 4

Just a lot of beautiful life-model sets of
magic lantern slides. .


Go to:	part 1	part 2	part 3	part 4	part 5	part 6	part 7	part 8	part 9	part 10

Cripple Tom: or 'knowing is loving and loving is doing'. A set of 17 life model slides made by G.M. Mason, England, after Mrs Walter Searle's song 'Cripple Tom: or, knowing is loving, and loving is doing'. This is how the story starts..... In one of the deplorably miserable East London homes, in a dark, wretched room at the top of a house, lay a cripple boy, greatly neglected and comparatively unknown. When quite young his parents had died, leaving him to the mercy of an aged relative, whom he called “Granny”. Born a cripple, he had always been a sufferer, but as long as he was able, he had swept a crossing on his crutches, or gone on short errands to earn a few pence. But soon after his parents‘ death the boy had to take to his bed. Very ungraciously the old woman allowed him to occupy the top room in her house, which room he never left again.


1. In a wretched room a cripple boy lay.	2. He swept a crossing on his crutches.	3. In the Mission Hall for the sake of warmth.

4. He one day consulted Granny about it.	5. Up the creaking stairs came noisy Jack Lee.	6. A bright new shilling for you Tom, lad.


7. He returned with a beautiful shilling Bible.	8. Tom hugged the book to his breast.	9. After a month's reading Tom knew his Bible well.


10. Tom dropped his text into the noisy street.	11. So you are the lad who drops texts from the window.	12. The little paper fell on my hat, I opened it.
	I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. John 9:4 King James Bible
13. Cripple Tom's Text.		14. The Homes for Cripple Lads.

15. The strong man knelt by the boy's bedside.	16. A Mission Hall, built on his own ground.	17. The post brought a parcel containing Tom's much prized Bible.
Daddy. Set of nine magic lantern slides made by the most producing manufacturer of life model slides, Bamforth & Co. (1896) after the song 'Daddy' by Mary Mark Lemon and A.H. Behrend.


1. Take my head on your shoulder, daddy, turn your face to the west.	2. The day has been long without you, daddy, you have been such a while away.	3. But I've got you, and you've got me. So everything seems right.

4. Why do your big tears fall, daddy? Mother's not far away.	5. (Effect) I often seem to hear her voice falling across my play.	6. And it sometimes makes me cry, daddy, to think it's none of it true.

3 rpt. But I've got you, and you've got me. So everything seems right.	7. I'm sometimes afraid to think, daddy, when I am big like you.	8. If, when we get up to Heaven, and mother was waiting there.

3 rpt. But year by year still sees no change.	9. Daddy, good night, dear daddy, good night.	Detail.
A little girl tries to comfort her father after the death of their mother and wife: Why do your big tears fall, daddy? Mother's not far away. I often seem to hear her voice falling across my play. Slide #3 is two times repeated, after #6 and #8.

The song 'Daddy' has been depicted by several other manufacturers too, like G.M. Mason, England; York & Son, England; and finally an unknown manufacturer who replaced the girl by a boy to play the leading part. Bamforth also produced a reissue of 'Daddy', containing 16 slides. You'll find the complete Mason set at the item 'I love you!'.
Mrs. Burton was very proud of the her bedroom, “if pride of any kind or degree is allowable to a Christian.”	Mrs Burton's best bedroom A set of twelve magic lantern slides after Hesba Stretton's book 'Mrs Burton's best Bedroom' made by York & Son, England, c. 1895. The writer of children's books Hesba Stretton (1832–1911) was born in Wellington, England as Sarah Smith. Stretton was her pen name, Stretton coming from the name of a neighbouring village, and Hesba coming from the initials of her siblings. She wrote 'Jessica’s First Prayer' in 1867, which became one of her most beloved stories and also has been adapted to a set of magic lantern slides.


1. Mrs Burton's best bedroom.	2. She brought two illuminated texts and hung them up.	3. She gave the shelf of her chimney-piece a new coat.

4. She ran out to return the paint-pot to its owner.	5. He drew off his heavy boots.	6. He opened his eyes and stretched himself drowsily.

7. Neither of them could speak for a minute or two.	8. 'I was very drunk last night'.	9. Marshall slunk downstairs and out into the street.


10. 'You're the painter, I suppose?' she said.	11. 'I'd do anything to make you amends'.	12. Marshall invited Mrs Burton to take tea with him.
	Note that the colours of the interior of the bedroom differ considerably on several slides of this series. That's how the old man could go to sleep with a blue wallpaper on the wall and wake up in a purple coloured room. This indicates that the set is composed of a number of other sets, for example, because a slide was broken and replaced by a newly purchased slide. The series slides of this kind were always created as black and white photographs and also partly sold in that form. In addition series were all painted by specialized artists, slide by slide. These artists did not use tightly prescribed colours, but tinted the pictures in to their own taste and skill. That's why there are also differences in quality between the series. Of course the prices of the coloured series were significant higher than those of the black and white slides.
Little Meg's Children A set of 14 magic lantern slides based on the book 'Little Meg's Children' by Hesba Stretton, the author of, among others, 'Jessica's First Prayer' and 'Nelly's Dark Days'. Hesba Stretton (1832-1911) was the nom de plume of Sarah Smith, an English author of children's literature. The name Hesba came from the initials of her siblings. It is a Victorian children's book about a ten year old girl named Meg, left to fend for herself and her younger siblings. A very sad story, with lots of morals and a happy, though frustrating ending.


1. Angel Court	2. The only nurse she had was her eldest child

3. Meg scrubbing and cleaning the room	4. Could you tell me if father's ship has come in yet?	5. Mother! Mother!


6. Haven't you found father?	7. Halloo! little woman! how's Robbie and baby?	8. Well, dear, fall to and welcome


9. Mrs Blossom gave them a farewell kiss each	10. Meg and Robin gazed at the change wonderingly	11. She had thrown herself before the horses

12. Posy! cried Mrs Blossom	13. I'm here, father!	14. Meg and her father arrive at their new home

	More life model slides....