(Optical Effects) | "The Senses Deceived"

(Optical Effects)

A group of four printed items

Mr. Pinchbeck. A Description of that Curious Machine, the Panopticon. N.p., [1751]. Letterpress broadside (270 x 190 mm). A few smudges, spots. Mounted on a sheet of paper. — Mr. Hearn. The Camera Obscura; or, Dark Chamber ... Also, The Delineator. [London]: Geoghegan, [1792]. Letterpress broadside (190 x 152 mm). Printed on blue paper, hand-dated; some browning to left margin, creases to right margin. Mounted on a sheet of paper. — The Power of Imagination; or, The Senses Deceived. [London]: N.p., [ca. 1790s?]. Letterpress broadside (195 x 172 mm). Ruled in decorative border, nice wide margins; rubbed, old folds, browned. — [Pepper, John Henry]. The American Literary Bureau Has Secured ... J.H. Pepper. N.p., N.d. Printed brochure on bifolium (258 x 352 mm). Printed verso and recto, laid flat; old folds, browning, especially along vertical fold.

The items here each advertise early mechanical optical illusions and displays: "this really wonderful Instrument, ... forms a grand Display of Living Paints of Nature"; " ... The Senses Deceived, By a Variety of the most pleasing Effects in Optics, ever exhibited; ... as, by the help of Glasses, Paintings are made to nearly resemble Nature, as scarce to be known from Real Life." Also included is a brochure for an American lecture tour by John Henry Pepper, during which he would exhibit Pepper's Ghost, and deliver lectures on "The Grand Phenomena of Nature."

Sold as group lot, not subject to return.