?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
SCARCE OPTICAL MINIATURES (CURIOSA.) Six bisque porcelain lithophane plates with erotic subjects. Likely French or German. Each 52x41 mm; 2x1 5/8 inches. Circa 1840
Lithophanes are thin panels of glazed, translucent china that, when a strong light shines through from the back side, transform the relief into a delicate toned chiaroscuro scene, similar to a mezzotint. The process was invented by Baron de Bourgoing, who patented it in Paris in 1827. They were designed to be hung in windows or displayed before candle or firelight and were later adapted to lamp shades. Atypical examples of a process that generally featured religious themes, four of these lithophanes show a male and female coupling, a fourth features a limber woman with three members of the infantry, and a fifth image, the only one with a glaze and a visibly tool-worked verso (possibly later?) shows a reclining couple being spied on by a woman behind the bed curtains. They are dressed from different time periods and, aside from one clerical interior, are in domestic, ordinary settings.
