FINE LARGE MAGIC LANTERN CYCLOIDOTROPE by NEWTON & CO
16-005. English, 4th quarter 19th century, with a trade label disk for "NEWTON & CO MAKERS LONDON, 3 FLEET ST." The 7 3/4" x 5" x 3/4" thick mahogany frame has a 4 5/8" diameter hole in the center, with a complex geared mechanism mounted in the hole and a glass disk behind the mechanism. In use, the glass disk is smoked and the frame is put in the slide holder of a large magic lantern. When the handle is turned, a small stylus traces out a epicycloid pattern on the glass disk which is projected onto a screen as it is being created. This large magic lantern cycloidotrope is in fine working condition. Cycloidotropes are probably the rarest of all mechanical magic lantern slides and this example is much larger and more complex than one sold at Christie's in London several years ago (the only other example that we have been able to find for sale in the last 10 years).
