Magic lantern slide: Figure of Death

A hand-painted magic lantern slide depicting the figure of death holding a knife and a human heart, painted by an unknown artist in the 19th century. This type of slide is likely to have been used in Phantasmagoria Shows where 'magical' appearances of ghosts and phantoms were projected onto screens or smoke.

A slipping (or slipper) slide is designed to give movement to a still drawing to reveal something which was previously hidden. There are two main types of slipping slide, single and double. With the single slide, the action is produced by sliding one glass in front of another. - two glasses are mounted in a wooden frame, one of which is fixed and the other moves across it. The movable glass is called the slipping glass and can be moved usually into two final positions to mask off then reveal part of the image.