Myriorama (3 results)

Unpaginated, 7X10 inch art magazine; color illust., wraps a bit handled, else very good. Includes a poem about criminologist Cesare Lambroso.

Sheep backed cloth and card box containing the complete 24 panel myriorama [on 23 cards, one being double sized]; each a hand coloured aquatint. The inner panel of the box with a hand coloured aquatint view of the Temple of Minerva at Athens. Including the 16 page descriptive booklet with folding key plate; "Instructions for Drawing" with small hand coloured watercolour samples. Contents in practically fine condition, the box a little worn with an attractive leather label "Grecian Views" to the top. "An exceedingly unusual and interesting type of Panorama consisting of 24 slabs of cardboard, 23 of which measure 8 by 2 5/8 inches, the other one 8 by 5 1/4 inches, each containing A COLOURED AQUATINT VIEW of some part of ATHENS. Each section is numbered and a Descriptive Instruction Book accompanying the set shews how the cards are arranged to form the main 7 views which include, a General View of Athens, Temple of Erectheus and Minerva Polias, Mount Parnassus, Marathon, Corinth, etc. In addition, the views on the cards are so contrived that, placed side by side in any order, they still match and form different views, the number of variations possible being immense, viz., 620, 448, 401, 733, 239, 439, 360,000. This "Hellenicorama" is primarily intended for the use of students of landscape painting, and the instruction book gives details of methods of composition, tints and colours to be used etc., with actual specimens of the tints and colours suggested. The whole is contained in a box, on the inside cover of which is a coloured view of The Temple of Minerva at Athens." From a Sawyer catalogue of 1948. Rare. This has appeared previously at auction twice, at Sothebys in 1971, the same copy returning in 1990. Our copy is almost certainly the same copy. There are only 5 or possibly 6 copies identified in institutions, one in the U.K. at St. Andrews University; and 4 or 5 in North America at The Getty, Pierpont Morgan, Princeton and Toronto at the Thomas Fisher Library.…

16mo., hand-coloured engraved myriorama alphabet comprising 24 pictorial cards with numbers beneath the pictures (1-24) and A-Z in upper and lower case to each card. The cards are housed in a card slipcase with decorative floral paper covering and printed paper label; occasional light foxing to some cards, light wear to extremities of the slipcase, with loss to lower portion and upper corner of the printed title label, light loss to marbled paper covering of case in a couple of places, a very good example of this rare set. "An exceptional early Picture Alphabet that completely focused on both extramural reading and fun for the child." Buijnsters :Lust En Leering. (History of the Dutch children's book in the nineteenth century). Myriorama, or 'Many Thousand Views' consist of numerous cards depicting fragments or segments of landscapes, people and buildings that can be arranged in a multitude of different combinations allowing a child to create a variety of imaginary landscapes. This 'entertainment' for 'young ladies and gentlemen' originated in France but was quickly adopted in other European countries. From wikipedia: Myriorama originally meant a set of illustrated cards which 19th century children could arrange and re-arrange, forming different pictures. Later in the century the name was also applied to shows using a sequence of impressive visual effects to entertain and inform an audience. The word myriorama was invented to mean myriad pictures, following the model of panorama, diorama, cosmorama and other novelties. These were all part of a wider interest in viewing landscape as panorama, and in new ways of presenting "spectacular" scenes. The early myrioramas were cards with people, buildings, and other images on compatible backgrounds, and could be laid out in any order, allowing a child to create a variety of imaginary landscapes. Jean-Pierre Brès, a French children's writer, published an early version which he described as a polyoptic picture (tableau polyoptique) in the early 19th century, and John Clark of London took up the idea and designed a set of cards he called a myriorama. Clark's "second series" myriorama, an "Italian landscape", was produced in 1824, the same year as a similar set of English cards called a panoramacopia created by drawing teacher T.T.Dales.…