Vue d'optique - Vue perspective de la Revue de la Maison du Roy.

Original engraving. Hand-colored optical view in watercolor, depicting a view of the review of the King's Household, "infantry which takes place every year in the plain of Sablons one league from Paris". Optical views, also called vues, perspectives or "mondo nuovo", were engravings very fashionable between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They were intended to be observed through a set of several mirrors or by means of a Zograscope, an instrument consisting of a mirror and a lens. Optical views can be considered as the precursors of three-dimensional images and stereoscopes which enjoyed great success from the 19th century onwards. Optical views seem to appear in the 1740s and were parlor entertainments. The process was first developed in Paris, then London and finally in Germany, and aimed to represent - in an idealized manner - the most famous panoramas and landscapes of East and West. A small angular crease mark. Fine impression with very fresh colors.