The V&A only held a handful of paper peepshows until, in 2016, it received the large collection assembled by Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner. Gathered over a period of 30 years, it consists of over 400 paper peepshows and other optical devices dating from the 19th century to the present day.
What is a paper peepshow?
Paper peepshows are like miniature worlds unfolding before your eyes. In an instant, you are brought to a festival, a historical event, a faraway land, a play in a busy theatre, a battlefield, the inauguration of a great engineering feat, a biblical scene or an international exhibition. The scenes are colourful and action-packed, and as they recede into the distance, they create an illusion of depth.
Consisting of a front and back panel with cut-out prints in-between, linked by bellows on the sides or at the top and bottom, the peepshow looks like a stretched-out concertina when open but when closed, you would never guess the wonders it contains. It neatly collapses into a box, as does The Thames Tunnel from 1851, or into an unassuming bundle, which is often slid into a slipcase.
What makes the experience of the peepshow so special is that it is intimate and personal. As you look into the peephole, you see the scene unfold and are drawn into all its incredible details.
Precursors
Paper peepshows developed out of sturdier 18th-century peepshows, in which views were slid at regular intervals into a rigid box made of wood or cardboard, with the peephole located at one end. In the example below, several scenes have been combined into a larger frame. The layered structure of the peepshow was inspired by Baroque stage sets where the decor was painted onto a series of parallel planes that moved along grooves set in the stage.
The V&A has two early examples of these 'perspective views', as they were known, by Martin Engelbrecht, a German engraver and publisher. Both are taken from a series devoted to various trades and occupations: one takes us into a printer's workshop, and the other a painter's studio.
Up until the late 19th century, you could also encounter travelling peepshow men in towns and fairs. Equipped with large peepshow boxes, they would charge adults and children to look inside the box, while commenting on the scene depicted and bringing it to life. The satirical print below shows a man so absorbed in the spectacle that he does not realise that his pockets are being picked.
19th-century popular culture
Paper peepshows had their heyday in the mid 19th century, at a time when optical devices were all the rage. The trend began in Austria and Germany, and quickly spread to France and England. Often produced cheaply, they would be sold as souvenirs at popular travel destinations or as substitutes to experiencing the real thing. For the viewer today, they are playful and interactive time-travelling devices which highlight the kinds of attractions that thrilled people at the time.
Two London attractions dominated the news and captured the public imagination, not only nationally but internationally, in the period from the 1820s to the 1850s. These were the construction of the Thames Tunnel, begun in 1825 and completed in 1843, and the Great Exhibition of 1851 – the first of its kind, for which a Crystal Palace had been specially erected. Their popularity is reflected in the number of souvenirs, ephemera and prints, including peepshows, that recorded and celebrated these two achievements. The Gestetner Collection includes over 60 examples of the Thames Tunnel and as many depicting the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, and its later reconstruction at Sydenham in South London.
The Thames Tunnel was borne out of a need to support commerce and connect the expanding docks on either side of the River Thames that were too far from existing bridges. Marc Isambard Brunel (father of Isambard Kingdom) embarked on a project to link the north and south banks of the Thames between Wapping and Rotherhithe, using a new shield technology. Fraught with financial and technical difficulties, the tunnel took 20 years to complete. As the world's first tunnel to be built under a navigable river, it became a major visitor destination. During its construction, visitors paid to see the workers in action and, by the time it was completed, it had turned into a shopping arcade, full of stalls selling souvenirs in all shapes and forms.
The Great Exhibition of 1851, which led to the birth of the V&A (then called the South Kensington Museum), was a major event which drew crowds from all over the world. A crystal palace was erected in Hyde Park in London to welcome the 14,000 exhibitors showcasing the latest technologies and artworks from their respective countries. Peepshows acted as an advertisement for the Great Exhibition, providing views of the impressive glass and iron structure. Some also depicted the Crystal Palace after the Exhibition when it was dismantled and rebuilt at Sydenham in South London. These depictions were not always accurate, as in the example below, where the newly built railway appears to transport visitors directly into the building.
The Gestetner Collection also includes other optical devices of various formats. Paris La Nuit, for example, comes with a series of slides showing views of Paris by day. However, when these slides are inserted into the back of the device and viewed against a strong source of light, these sights are transformed into night views, or even reveal a completely different scene.
The 20th and 21st century
By the end of the 19th century, the popularity of the paper peepshow was in decline. The format was however revived in the 1950s, but this time it was more specifically aimed at children. The Werner Laurie Show Book Series was designed in such a way that a child could transform his or her book, with the help of glue and scissors, into a paper peepshow that depicted, for example, a performance of Swan Lake.
The peepshow format has been used more recently by artists to create artists' books and our collection includes some fine examples, such as Leilei Guo's Fairyland (Beijing, 2009) and Tara Bryan's Down the Rabbit Hole (Flatrock: Walking Bird Press, 2005).
Fancy a peek into the miniature world of the paper peepshow?
Or, if you don't know where to start, we've pre-selected seven paper peepshow examples for you to see with no prior appointment needed – find out more
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You can even try making your own paper peepshow at home with our free online guide.
