I'm always on the hunt for old kaleidoscopes, very happy when I find a homemade one, but this is something else, and the most beautiful I've seen--a Victorian example, made in England, with this gorgeous treen (turned wood) eye piece, which feels to me like the very essence/icon of kaleidoscope. The body is pasteboard, with elegant printed paper wrap, and tin around the glass end, partially wrapped in brown paper embossed with a leaf and vine pattern. This is a manual example, as most early ones were: you simply rotate (or shake) the whole thing to move the glass shards inside, thus changing the patterns. I don't find it easy to shoot with my photo through the eye hole, but took a few photos to try to give a sense. This exterior of this shows some wear, but t works just as it should and I think remains a gorgeous, and really special--magical!--feeling thing. Another good one for the cabinet of curiosities for sure!
(A very similar example, with considerable paper loss, recently sold at Flints Auctions in the UK for £350.)
12 3/4" tall x 3" widest (base.) A bit of minor splitting to the wood around the eyehole in a couple spots, general light wear to the board shaped body and paper covering, and partial loss to the paper covering the tin rim at the glass end. Works as it should, not fragile, overall sound and stable.
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