Title: Vue d'optique : The Inside view of Westminster Abby.

Dimensions:  Sheet: 20-7/8"W x 13-3/4"H

                        Plate impression: 16-5/8"W x 10-5/8"H

The engraver: Not listed

Description:

This auction is for a hand colored Vue d’Optique engraving depicting the interior architecture of the Westminster Abby in London. As is often the case with vues d’optique, figures in the foreground are in bright colors, with light and dark to suggest contour and depth; those in the distance ae simply pale blots of color.  The architectural features also fade to a pale beige shade in the background. Oddly enough, this view also features in the foreground a cluster of children, or other halflings, wearing robes that have not been colored.  I have no explanation.

The History:

Westminster Abbey has a long history that I could not do justice to in the time you are likely to spent looking at this item.  Let's just say it is important to a whole bunch of people, the English foremost among them. Wikipedia would be happy to fill you in.

The Technology:

Vues d'Optique, optical views, were designed to provide a perception of depth from a single two-dimensional engraving.  They were viewed through a zograscope, also known as an "optical diagonal machine," by which the user looked through a large magnifying lens into a mirror in which the image was reflected. Techniques such as exaggerated perspective, brighter foreground colors, magnification of the subject matter and tight framing of the field of vision served to disrupt the viewers perception of a two-dimensional image and helped to draw the viewer into the scene.  

It did not provide the kind of 3D experience afforded by the stereoscopic photography that replaced it in the mid 1800s, but from about 1750 until the advent of photography it was a popular home entertainment for the well-to-do.  It offered a greater sense of presence in views of foreign places and sights than one could experience in images on walls or in books. Titles are often seen in multiple languages under the image, with a single title mirrored in reverse above it so that one could read it in a viewer.