Edinburgh./Edinbourg./Edinburgh. Das Schloss zu Edinburgh.
Le château d'Edinbourgh./The Castle of Edinburgh, ca.1835

Double-sided accordion-style paper peepshow: 3 peep-holes. Edinburgh New Town can be viewed from one end, and Edinburgh Old Town with the Castle of Edinburgh from the other.

5 double-sided cut-out panels. Hand-coloured etching. In a slipcase. Expands to approximately 46.5 cm.
Slipcase: marble pattern board, with the title ’Doeidorama No. 2’.

Front-face: two front faces form the two halves of a cartonnage box enclosing the paper peepshow at either end. The image on each front-face is the same as that featuring on each side of the back slide, but with French, German and English titles. The peep-holes consist of one big and two small circular holes on each front-face.

Edinburgh New Town panels 1-5: street scene with pedestrians and carriages in the centre; men and women strolling along a covered walkway on the left; the West Door of a church down the nave towards the altar on the right. The sides are left unpainted from panel 4 onwards, as they are obliterated by busy compositions on panels 1 to 3.

Edinburgh Old Town panels 1-5: troops parading on panel 1 in the centre, pedestrians and carriages on all panels in the centre; interior of a chapel (possibly Trinity College Kirk) on the left; a ball in progress and a view of a stable on the right. The sides are left unpainted from panel 4 onwards, as they are obliterated by busy compositions on panels 1 to 3.

Removable double-sided back slide:
For Edinburgh New Town, a view from Calton Hill with Waterloo Place and Prince’s Street; Edinburgh Bridewell in the foreground. For Edinburgh Old Town, a view of West Port and the Grassmarket with Edinburgh Castle in the distance.

The slide can be taken out and inserted at either end of the paper peepshow as the back panel.

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.

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.

This paper peepshow, named Doeidorama, has a front-face and peep-holes on both ends, as well as cut-out panels printed on both sides. It is therefore a combination of works in one. Its content is a reproduction of that of Gestetner 104 and 105, showing Edinburgh Old and New Town. The owner also had to take on a more active role in using the peepshow, as s/he needed to manually move the back slide to complete the peep view. Enclosing the paper peepshow in a cartonnage box was one basic format used by German manufacturers. Also common was the practice of giving titles in German, French and English, as many publishers aimed their products at an international market.

Edinburgh Old Town is the oldest part of the city, and preserves its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings. In the eighteenth century, in response to overcrowding in the Old Town, Edinburgh New Town was built. Contrary to the labyrinth of narrow alleys and hidden courtyards in the Old Town, the broad streets and Neo-Classical and Georgian buildings in the New Town formed a layout that was suitable for the development of the modern city.

While it is difficult to find the etymological explanation for the peculiar name ‘Doeidorama’, some speculations can be made. ‘Doeid’ might be related to ‘dual,’ referencing the double-sided feature of the paper peepshow, and ‘-orama’ is borrowed from the popular suffix for optical devices in this period.

Gestetner 106