Unique Auctions Sunday 24th February Fine Antiques & Collectors Sale includes a fine collection of Magic Lantern slides. The sets include the very popular Punch and Judy set, and many historical and story Magic Lantern slides. There is a strong collectors market for Magic Lanterns and magic lantern slides can vary in price from a few pounds to a few hundred pounds.
History of the Magic Lanterns
There has been some debate about who the original inventor of the magic lantern is, but the most widely accepted theory is that Christiaan Huygens developed the original device in the late 1650s. In the fifteenth century, however, Giovanni Fontana, a Venetian engineer, had already created a lantern that projected an image of a demon. And other sources give credit to the German priest Athanasius Kircher. He describes a device such as the magic lantern in his book Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae. There are possible mentions of this device associated with Kircher as early as 1646. Even in its earliest use, it was demonstrated with monstrous images such as the Devil.  Huygens’s device was even referred to as the “lantern of fright” because it was able to project spooky images that looked like apparitions.  In its early development, it was mostly used by magicians and conjurers to project images, making them appear or disappear, transform from one scene into a different scene, animate normally inanimate objects, or even create the belief of bringing the dead back to life. In the 1660s, a man named Thomas Walgensten used his so-called “lantern of fear” to summon ghosts. Such uses of this early machine were not uncommon. In fact, a common setup of the machine was to keep parts of the projector in a separate, adjoining room with only the aperture visible, to make it seem more magical and scare people. By the 18th century, use by charlatans was common for religious reasons. For example, Count Cagliostro used it to “raise dead spirits” in Egyptian masonry. Johann Georg Schröpfer of Leipzig used the magic lantern to conjure up images of spirits on smoke. Schröpfer later went insane, thinking he was pursued by real devils, and shot himself after promising an audience he would later resurrect himself. Source: Wikipedia.
Fine Antiques & Collectors Sale Sunday 24th February
The Sunday 24th February Fine Antiques & Collectors Sale starts at 9am. Viewing of items starts at 10am on Friday 22nd February and the morning of the sale from 7am. The sale will also be available online for bidding through the Sale Room. Click here to register.
About Unique Auctions
Unique Auctions are one of Lincolnshire’s leading Auction Houses offering a range of regular Antique & Collectors sales. Unique Auctions handle every aspect of probate, house, agricultural, commercial and industrial clearances.
For further information call UK +44 (0) 1522 690444 or visit https://www.unique-auctions.com
We are now accepting Gold Sovereigns and Gold Half Sovereigns, as well as other items for all future auctions.
