viewing your coin images way back then.......
coinsarefun
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.......must have been very cool using one of these
Megalethoscope link here
Invented in 1860 by Charles Ponti in Venice, the megalethoscope enhanced the viewing of photographs, a new technology of the time. Special fabric backed photographs, often hand colored and small holes strategically placed pin holes were inserted in one end. Doors with mirrors could be opened to allow natural light to illuminate the photo. Viewing would occur by looking in the lens opposite the photo, giving an almost “you are there” effect. Night time views of the photo would occur by closing the doors and placing a kerosene lamp behind the photo allowing light to seep through giving a whole new effect to the viewer.
Megalethoscope link here
Invented in 1860 by Charles Ponti in Venice, the megalethoscope enhanced the viewing of photographs, a new technology of the time. Special fabric backed photographs, often hand colored and small holes strategically placed pin holes were inserted in one end. Doors with mirrors could be opened to allow natural light to illuminate the photo. Viewing would occur by looking in the lens opposite the photo, giving an almost “you are there” effect. Night time views of the photo would occur by closing the doors and placing a kerosene lamp behind the photo allowing light to seep through giving a whole new effect to the viewer.
CoinsAreFun Pictorials Album
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CoinsAreFun Toned Silver Eagle Proof Album
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Gallery Mint Museum, Ron Landis& Joe Rust, The beginnings of the Golden Dollar
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More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC
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CoinsAreFun Toned Silver Eagle Proof Album
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Gallery Mint Museum, Ron Landis& Joe Rust, The beginnings of the Golden Dollar
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More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC
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Comments
That is very neat! Not all hand colored though. There was true color back then as well...
Imagine a color photo taken in 1887 of an 1887 Proof set in its original case!
I know of a color photo of a medal with ribbon, but no coins, not yet. So, just what would you see if you peeked through one of these devices? Click the link below. That is over 100 years ago - and these go back decades before that.
This viewer is just like a basic European autochrome viewer - it is like a picture frame with an accordion-ed leather back and mirror to illuminate the color glass plates of the day. There were color prints too - an early process and limited, was available in the 1853 in France. In Europe, these types of glass plate viewers were in use by 1880. By 1907 when the Lumiere Autochrome was available in the United States, this was all in full swing. Autochromes are startling. There are autochromes of Mark Twain, Tolstoy, Chaplin...
Below is a public domain autochrome image - a self portrait by the great Russian photographer, Prokudin-Gorskii from 1912. Images of this quality can be seen from th 1880's and on in various collections.
100 years ago or yesterday...
Self-portrait of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, 1912.
Early color photograph from Russia, created by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii as part of his work to document the Russian Empire from 1904 to 1916. Public Domain/Library of Congress
Best wishes,
Eric
Credit to the OP for the idea.
Eric