32 magic lantern slides of London and its Environs

Thirty two hand-painted lantern slides 3" circular, by Carpenter & Westley, in box. Subjects being London and its Environs.

Philip Carpenter began his working life as an optician in Birmingham and moved to London in 1826. He sold magic lanterns and made Brewster's patent kaleidoscopes. He also invented 'copper plate sliders', a method of lanern slide manufacture which involved transferring engraved black outlines onto glass which were then hand painted. Philip Carpenter died in 1833, when his sister Mary in partnership with William Wesley took over the business, naming it Carpenter and Westley. The first notable series of copper plate sliders was a set of 56 slides (over 200 images) of the animal kingdom according to Linneaus's classification. From 1840, they also produceda vast range of other types of magic lantern slides.