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The Tunnel / Pont sous la Tamise

Paper Peepshow
ca. 1835 (published)

The Thames Tunnel was an engineering project that spurred great public excitement both in Great Britain and abroad, and paper peepshows belonged to the wide range of souvenirs produced to cater for the public’s interest. The construction of the Thames Tunnel connecting Wapping on the north bank with Rotherhithe to the south was authorised in 1824. Work began on the Rotherhithe shaft in March 1825, and the first Thames Tunnel paper peepshow appeared as early as 16 June of the same year in London, showing how the finished work would look. The paper peepshow’s shape effectively conveys the shape of the Tunnel and makes it the perfect device to render this type of monumental structure.

This work is essentially a copy of a French peepshow on the same theme published c. 1828 (Gestetner 27), although its execution is not as careful. For instance, the sky on the front panel is printed with patches of blue instead of the subtle aerial perspective encountered on the model. The colouring of figures on the first cut-out panel sometimes bleeds beyond the outline, and the panels prove too wide for the bellows. This peepshow may have been produced in Germany where the practice of enclosing the paper peepshow in a cartonnage box was more common. The English title suggests that this modest souvenir was aimed at an international market.

Typical of Thames Tunnel paper peepshows produced before the completion of the actual Tunnel, this work presents a projected rather than realistic view. The coaches and horses shown in the paper peepshow, for instance, were never able to enter the Tunnel in reality, as a ramp was never built.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Tunnel / Pont sous la Tamise (published title)
Materials and techniques
Brief description
The Tunnel/Pont sous la Tamise, ca. 1835
Physical description
Accordion-style paper peepshow of the Thames Tunnel as it would appear when completed.

4 cut-out panels. 1 peep-hole. Hand-coloured line engraving. In a slipcase. Expands to approximately 59 cm.

Front-face: Embossed green border. View of the Thames from Blackfriars Bridge towards London Bridge. The City with St Paul’s Cathedral is on the left and Southwark on the right. The English title appears on a scroll in the sky, while the French one is at the bottom inside the peep-hole. The peep-hole consists of a rounded rectangular-shaped hole set on an imagined parapet. Beneath the peep-hole is a short description of the Thames Tunnel in italicised French. The front-face forms the lid of a cartonnage box containing the paper peepshow.

Panel 1: two men going up the stairs on the right; a couple standing in the centre; a man descending the stairs with a dog on the left.

Panel 2: a coach with three passengers, drawn by two horses, and a man in the right archway; a man and a woman in the left archway.

Panel 3: a man carrying pails and two men conversing in the right archway; a loaded wagon and a man in the left archway.

Panel 4: an equestrian in the right archway, a single pedestrian in the l
eft archway.

Back panel: pedestrians and a vehicle in the Tunnel archways. Stamp marks and illegible hand-writing on the reverse side of the back panel.
Dimensions
  • Height: 14cm
  • Width: 16cm
  • Fully extended length: 59cm
Credit line
Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from the collections of Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2016.
Object history
Part of the Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner Collection, collected over 30 years and given to the V&A Museum through the government's Cultural Gift Scheme, 2016.
Summary
The Thames Tunnel was an engineering project that spurred great public excitement both in Great Britain and abroad, and paper peepshows belonged to the wide range of souvenirs produced to cater for the public’s interest. The construction of the Thames Tunnel connecting Wapping on the north bank with Rotherhithe to the south was authorised in 1824. Work began on the Rotherhithe shaft in March 1825, and the first Thames Tunnel paper peepshow appeared as early as 16 June of the same year in London, showing how the finished work would look. The paper peepshow’s shape effectively conveys the shape of the Tunnel and makes it the perfect device to render this type of monumental structure.

This work is essentially a copy of a French peepshow on the same theme published c. 1828 (Gestetner 27), although its execution is not as careful. For instance, the sky on the front panel is printed with patches of blue instead of the subtle aerial perspective encountered on the model. The colouring of figures on the first cut-out panel sometimes bleeds beyond the outline, and the panels prove too wide for the bellows. This peepshow may have been produced in Germany where the practice of enclosing the paper peepshow in a cartonnage box was more common. The English title suggests that this modest souvenir was aimed at an international market.

Typical of Thames Tunnel paper peepshows produced before the completion of the actual Tunnel, this work presents a projected rather than realistic view. The coaches and horses shown in the paper peepshow, for instance, were never able to enter the Tunnel in reality, as a ramp was never built.
Bibliographic reference
R. Hyde, Paper Peepshows. The Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner Collection (Woodbridge: The Antique Collectors' Club, 2015), cat. 45.
Other number
38041800930943 - NAL barcode
Collection
Library number
Gestetner 45

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Record createdMarch 8, 2017
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