VUES D’OPTIQUE AND VIEWER.

A three sided folding card viewer, the sides covered with black paper, with a 90 mm diameter lens, cloth hinges repaired; and eight views (listed below), each 360 × 260mm; in a custom-made cloth box.


A fine example of an early nineteenth century Vue d'Optique.

The views included include: [1] Ruines d'un monastery, [2] Vue de Genève, [3] Vue de Benares, [4] Quai Ste. Lucie - Naples, [5] Grotte d'Antiparos - Grèce, [6] Scène dans la mer glaciale, [7] Vue de Venise, and [8] Temple d'Apollinnopolis - Egypte. The scene depicting the 'glaciale' is signed B. Couvert, unfortunately we have not been able to identify the artist.

The Vues d'Optique is a viewing apparatus whose main components are a large, double convex lens. When the spectator looks at perspective views through the lens of the viewing machine, an illusion of recession is produced. The illusion of distance is created when the convex lens, is held just in front of the eyes, the spectator looking at the perspective view through its two edges which function like two prisms. Light rays that are thrown through the translucent print are refracted in such a way that they enter the eyes in a parallel direction. The brain interprets the incoming parallel images as a single image seen from a great distance. The important function of the lens in the optical machine is not its magnification but its creation of an illusion of depth in binocular vision.