W.’s Transparencies of Thames Tunnel’. These were an alternative amusement to the peepshow and a simpler version of the Protean View or ‘transformation’, which were both popular in Victorian times. G.W.’s Transparencies show The Thames Tunnel with gas lamps in the side arches. The lamps have been pierced through and tissue paper pasted behind so that when the lithograph is held to the light the gas lamps appear to shine.

Provenance

Private collection; Marlborough Rare Books.