Optical box engraving

Engraving. The Show. J. Hoppner, J. Young. People watching a visual show in an optical device known as Peep Show. Engravings were made from the images captured and drawn with the help of a camera obscura. These engravings made part of a visual spectacle known as the Peep Show, also known in Europe as Mundo Nuovo, Tuttilimundi, Mundonuevos or Mondoniovo. These optical instruments had a wooden box inside making it possible to see these engravings known as optical views thorough an enlarging lens. Some of them were animated by the use of various light tricks. The view of an engraving of an image in perspective through the lens gave the spectator a sense of depth and realism that had never been seen before. The idea of this spectacle was to offer the viewer images of other places and worlds without having to go on a journey. It was a typical travelling show in the eighteen century and it lasted until the mid nineteenth century.