PeepShow Print

Vue Generale de la Ville de Paris a l'usage de l'Optique (General View Paris for Use in the Optical Cabinet)

"Vue Generale de la Ville de Paris a l'usage de l'Optique" (General View Paris for Use in the Optical Cabinet) is an original hand-coloured engraving published as a 'Peepshow' print between 1780 and 1790. It was designed to be seen through a special wooden cabinet. The viewer could look through a small opening and the mirrors and lenses within the box would create an effect of space and perspective of the scene placed inside. Many peepshow prints provided views of both France and foreign lands, such as this aerial landscape view of Paris. These prints were a constant attraction at fairs and carnivals and a showman would often add commentary to the viewing. This engraving is printed upon eighteenth century hand-made, laid paper and with full margins. "Vue Generale de la Ville de Paris a l'usage de l'Optique" is a fine, original example of this scarce form of eighteenth century popular print.

General View Paris for Use in the Optical Cabinet Peepshow Print Original Engraving

Vue Generale de la Ville de Paris a l'usage de l'Optique
(General View Paris for Use in the Optical Cabinet)

View other original Engravings Created as Peepshow Prints.

Peepshow Prints
#	Image	Title & Source	Medium	Date
01-		Bal Chinois (Chinese Ball), an original Peepshow print published in Paris by Bassett	Original Hand-Colored Engraving	c. 1780
02.-		View of the Bridge of Vienna in Austria, an original Peepshow print published in Paris by Bassett	Original Hand-Colored Engraving	c. 1780
03.-		General View Paris for Use in the Optical Cabinet, an original Peepshow print	Original Hand-Colored Engraving	c. 1780

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Title:	Vue Generale de la Ville de Paris a l'usage de l'Optique (General View Paris for Use in the Optical Cabinet)
Artist:	Peep Show Print by an Anonymous French Artist
Date:	c. 1780 - 1790
Medium:	Original Hand-Colored Engraving
Note:	Long before Currier and Ives, the production of popular prints flourished in France and throughout Europe. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries almost every establishment in Paris' Rue Saint-Jacques was the address of a publisher or engraver for this industry. By the beginning of the nineteenth century the production and sale of popular engravings had shifted to the Palais-Royal and Rue Vivienne.
	Eighteenth century popular prints were not made to be admired as objects d'art; they were roughly engraved and rapidly colored. Most depicted views of topical interest or religious imagery and were manufactured for a mostly uncultured and unsophisticated audience. But the very popularity of these engravings insured that most were destroyed or lost after their usefulness expired. Today these valuable engravings are thus scarce and of much historic importance.
	Vue Generale de la Ville de Paris a l'usage de l'Optique (General View Paris for Use in the Optical Cabinet) belongs to a most interesting category of popular eighteenth century engravings -- the 'Peepshow' print. Beginning around 1750, hand-colored engravings of views or events were designed for special, optical wooden cabinets ('cabinet de l'optique'). When the engraving was placed within this cabinet the spectator would peep through a small opening with mirrors and lenses creating an effect of space and perspective. Thus the title (as is here the case in the upper margin) was usually reversed. These prints were a constant attraction at fairs and carnivals and a showman would often add commentary to the viewing.
	Many peepshow prints provided views of both France and foreign lands. In the eighteenth century travel was reserved for only the wealthy and thus those that viewed these prints would likely never see such destinations. This landscape view of Paris likely was shown at fairs in the provinces providing those in the country a glimpse of life in the metropolis.
Source:	Peepshow Print
Size:	10 X 16 1/4 (Sizes in inches are approximate, height preceding width of plate-mark or image.)
	Matted with 100% Archival Materials
Buy Now	Price: $365.00 US
Condition:	Printed upon eighteenth century hand-made, laid paper and with margins trimmed to within about 1/4" of the image. Containing slight, restored tears in the outer margins else a strongly printed impression with fine, unfaded hand-coloring and in good condition throughout. Vue Generale de la Ville de Paris a l'usage de l'Optique (General View Paris for Use in the Optical Cabinet) represents a superb original example of this scarce form of eighteenth century popular print.
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