a round hatbox-sized container has two tubes coming from it: one going up and one pointing out through the side. The lantern itself is brightly striped with red, blue, green, and yellow

Polychrome Magic Lantern

a sheet with 18 individual cards, each depicting a carnival scene including bear taming, tight rope walking, and a contortionist stretching themselves

Magic Card or Remedy for the Wind-Breaking of the Southwest and the Departure of the Cartouche

a distorted short and round man in eighteenth century clothing walks along announcing the wonders of the magic lantern he carries on his back

The Night Singer of Shares, with his Magic-Lantern

Anonymous

1720

Etching and engraving

Several of these mechanical devices and their purveyors appear in The Great Mirror of Folly, as in the figure shown here, who evokes one of seventeenth-century French printmaker Jacques Callot’s lowbrow street entertainers. Wandering around with his magic lantern in the hours of darkness, the so-called “night singer” also “bellows and blows,” suggesting that the bubbles possessed qualities that were not only phantasmagoric but also insomnia-inducing.

Holding Division: Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs

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The New York Public Library believes that this item is in the public domain under the laws of the United States, but did not make a determination as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. This item may not be in the public domain under the laws of other countries.