When placed in a special viewer with the lid closed, The Thames view is seen; when the lid is raised and light enters the box, the front image disappears, revealing the hidden image behind. In the Spooner Protean View presented by the Art Fund the tunnel ‘transforms’ into Queen Victoria’s coronation procession, but the Polyorama View works in reverse and the view of the Thames ‘transforms’ into the Thames Tunnel at night, with the tunnel arches peopled and the gas-lamps in the Tunnel lit.

Provenance

Private collection; Marlborough Rare Books.