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Description: | 6 anamorphic drawings on circular sheets of waxy paper. Small hole in centre of sheets: 1) drawing of person in yellow cravat chained to a rock speaking with man in green jacket. Characters not yet identified. 2) blue, yellow and black drawing of (swallow-tail?) butterfly 3) Black and white drawing of Napoleon(?) on horseback, most of diagram black inked 4) Black and white drawing of bust (could it be Wellington?, not yet checked) 5) Leaf-based pattern more black than white 6) Coloured drawings around 360 degrees of flowers on black ground
"Anamorphic drawing with Cylindrical Mirror A popular amusement 200 years ago was the viewing of anamorphic drawings, in which a highly distorted sketch appeared as a correct picture when seen in one unusual way. The simplest anamorphoses were those deformed by an unexpected perspective, such as the notable skull at the foot of Hans Holbein's 16th century twin portrait The Ambassadors. An even greater intellectual challenge was posed by the problem of preparing a drawing that looked correct when viewed in a cylindrical mirror or in a conical mirror. Such mirrors distort a normal scene. The illustration shows a highly deformed anamorphic drawing around the edge of a card disc. In the centre of the disc is a short cylindrical mirror on a wooden base. The reflection in the mirror clearly reveals the drawing as that of a cavalry officer. The mirror was made by W. & S. Jones of London in the late 18th century and the picture may be contemporary. Both have survived among the Natural Philosophy demonstration apparatus. The mirror is made of cast and polished speculum metal, a brittle alloy of copper, tin and arsenic that was formerly used for all telescope mirrors."
Author: Reid,John.S Date: 1991 Purpose: University.Newsletter | License: | http://www.abdn.ac.uk/historic/Copyright_terms_conditions.shtml | Publisher: | ABDNP University of Aberdeen, Natural Philosophy Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments | Rights holder: | 47718 | Temporal: | 1810-1830 | Source: | University of Aberdeen | Identifier: | http://calms.abdn.ac.uk/Geology/dserve.e... | Go to resource |
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