Folding Book

Museo Nazionale del Cinema Collection, Torino, Italy^[*] #MNC-M01026

Italy ca. 1780

Dimensions: H=55 cm, W=54 cm, D=40.2 cm

Lens: ⌀=12.8 cm, ƒ=64 cm

 

Figure MNC-M01026.1 – Folding Book
Photo © Ana Mendes.

Figure MNC-M01026.2 – Lens Frame
Photo © Ana Mendes.

This is a viewing-device with a biconvex lens that is meant to enhance the 3D effect of a vue d'optique. It folds up to masquerade as a book, like many similar devices. It is an example of an "optical machine " and is included in the Optical Machine Taxonomy.

 

The case is made of wood with a false-grain pattern perhaps meant to represent leather. Two side-wings fold out to support the lensed front. The mirror is missing, but appears to have been slightly larger than the lens and hinged from the two eyelets above it (see figure MNC-M01026.2). There is a narrow ledge atop each wing, perhaps to attach a cover-plate that might have performed a partial masking function.

 

An image-plate was originally designed to slot in above a storage space for prints. This feature makes the "book" much thicker than other examples of this kind of viewer.

 

For more on these diagonal-mirror machines and why they masquerade as books, see folding-book diagonal mirrors.

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