Filoscope: David Devant The Mysterious Rabbit
- Made:
- c. 1896 in London
- maker:
- Henry W Short and
- Unknown


Optical toy: A filoscope with printed kinetic photographic subject 'David Devant - The Mysterious Rabbit' with picture sheets numbered 3 - 124.
These pictures were originally produced by R W Paul around July 1896 for cinematographic projection. Devant's autobiography described the rabbit trick as 'the first animated picture ever taken of a performer...shot by R W Paul on the roof of the Alhambra Theatre... This picture wsa reproduced in a little device called the Filiscope [sic].'
Invented by Robert W Paul's (1869-1943) cameraman, Henry W Short, this was a small hand-held flip-book device, using a lever to flip over separate pictures to give the illusion of movement. Each filoscope contained a hundred or so frames reproduced from a professional film, many of them by Paul. They were marketed from 1897 onwards by the Anglo-French Filoscope Syndicate.
Details
- Category:
- Cinematography
- Object Number:
- 1993-5011/1
- Materials:
- brass (copper, zinc alloy) and paper (fibre product)
- type:
- optical toy
- credit:
- Christie's
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