Polyorama Panoptique

Scale: 1:1
Length: 32 cm
Width: 13 cm
Height: 10 cm
Degree of difficulty: 1 (easy)
Number of sheets: 3.5

Since the end of the 17th century, travelling showmen have roamed Europe transporting cumbersome apparatus on donkeys, two-wheeled carts or on their own backs. They set up these wooden boxes on market places and let their audience look inside through small slits with convex lenses. Inside the boxes there were pictures, initially in the form of drawings or copper etchings In the early 19th century, smaller versions of these peep-shows became increasingly popular as toys in private households. The cardboard model shown here is based on such a "Polyorama Panoptique", which can be seen at the German Film Museum in Frankfurt am Main. (For technical reasons our model is slightly different to the original). For the viewer, the apparent change from day to night, for example, in the Polyorama Panoptique is created by means of connecting flaps at the top and back of the box. which allow the picture to be shown with light from above or behind The changing picture is made up of two complementary and superimposed hand-coloured lithographs on thin paper, mounted in a wooden frame The colours of the front picture are somewhat pale, while those of the back picture are stronger. Additional effects are created by perforations, some of which are backed with coloured transfer paper to create the impression of illuminated windows, moon and stars or flames. The countless series of changing pictures, however, not only show the change from day to night, but also from calm to rough sea. from summer to winter landscape or from overall views to close-ups (zoo/lion) This optical gadget was based on the great stationary diorama by Jacques Mande Daguerre