titled on the cover and numbered “53”, 6 engravings and watercolours on paper, reinforced with thin cardboard, cut out with scissors/knife, ca. 15 x 20 cm, in a folded original paper envelope, somewhat damaged due to age, published by Martin Engelbrecht, Augsburg 1720/70, (Hu)

Scenery pictures, perspective theatre, backdrops for the peephole

Between the 1720s and the 1770s, thousands of miniature theaters constructed from sets of six to eight hand-colored prints were purchased by the wealthier classes of Europe, presumably as fanciful, amusing, or instructive decorations for the home. These very commercially successful three-dimensional theaters were produced exclusively by one printmaker, Martin Engelbrecht of Augsburg and his workshop. Marketed throughout Europe, Engelbrecht theaters came in three different standard sizes, with titles printed in German, French, Italian, Latin, or English. Given that Augsburg was a printmaking center at mid-century, it is curious that none of Engelbrecht’s compatriots pursued this visual genre. Other publishers could have been deterred by Engelbrecht’s claims that production of the tiny scenes was painstaking, costly, and time consuming. Another deterrent may have been Engelbrecht’s legal position. In 1719, and again in 1729 and 1739, he was granted a royal privilege for the exclusive production of “illuminierte Lackier- und Ausschneidebilder” (illuminated varnished and cutout images), which may well have included the paper theaters.

From: Devices of Wonder, from the world in a Box to Images on a Screen, Barbara Maria Stafford and Frances Terpak, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2001, S 336.