THE STORY OF PAPER PEEPSHOWS
Plate XXXIX. Peep of a peepshow celebrating progress in building the Ludwig Canal, 1843. [Cat. 157]
number of buildings from destruction. The front-face of his peepshow is richly emblematical [Plate XXXVIII]. It shows a Gothic portal with the arms of Bavaria and the figures of Charlemagne and of ‘our beloved King Ludwig’. To the left and right of the two monarchs are the figures of the Main and the Danube. The Main is shown as a bearded old man, his head crowned with vine leaves. With his right arm he leans on an amphora. A ship’s flag behind him symbolises the importance of the river for trading. On the other side, the female figure of the Danube is sitting. A sailing boat symbolises the importance of this river, and the half moon stands for the region where the river joins the sea. The portal is flanked by a pair of pillars. They are decorated with the arms of the most important towns that border the canal and crowned by the figures of the Virgin and St John the Baptist, patrons of Franconia and Bavaria respectively. ‘The entire scene is in bright colours’, the text explains, ‘symbolising the abundance that Ludwig’s oeuvre will bring to this country’. Copies of the peepshow could be acquired from J.G. Klinger’s art shop and manufactory of artistic toys in Nuremberg. Heideloff’s peepshow is represented in the Spielzeugmuseum, Nuremberg and the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. The Gestetners do not have it but they do have two states of another peepshow of the Ludwig Canal. This carries the English title, ‘Lewis – Danube - Maine – Channel’ [Cat. 157 and Cat. 162]. The emblematical front-face includes a bust of Ludwig (i.e. Lewis). Ancient Greece being the king’s great passion, he is shown clad in Greek costume and wearing a laurel crown. The peep itself shows a morale-boosting party on the canal, organised by the directors to celebrate the completion of the Bamberg to Nuremberg section of
it. The party seems to be out of hand. A reveller, who has fallen into the water, is hauled on shore by spectators. A train of the Nuremberg-Fürth railway passes over the bridge.
Plate XL. Formal opening of the Thames Tunnel, 15 March 1843, Sir (Marc) Isambard Brunel waving his hat. [Cat. 155]
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