May 15, 2018 - Sale 2478

Sale 2478 - Lot 71

Price Realized: $ 375
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(CHILDREN'S LITERATURE.) OPTICAL TOY. Kaleidoscope. 12x15 inches, wooden base attached to a painted tube and brass end filled with colored fragments, removable cap around eyehole, brass end can be moved to shift the mirrored image inside; V-shaped crack in glass viewing lens, else in good working condition. Np, nd [circa 1880s]
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Additional Details

A pre-cinema optical device; the term was coined as a transliteration from the Greek words 'to examine' and 'beauty.' Kaleidoscopes are still used today; viewers look through a tube which, when rotated, presents shifting, colorful symmetric images. In the 1870s, Charles Bush popularized the device as a children's toy in America; this early model follows his trademark style, using a wooden stand to more closely resemble a telescope.