Vue d'optique - Le marché aux chevaux à Francfort sur le Mein.

Original engraving. Optical view heightened in watercolor, depicting a view of the horse market in Frankfurt am Main.
Optical views, also called views, perspectives or "mondo nuovo", are engravings that were very fashionable between the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. They were intended to be observed through a set of multiple mirrors or by means of a Zygrascope, 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 drawing room entertainments. The process was first developed in Paris, then London and finally in Germany and focused on representing - in an idealized manner - the most famous panoramas and landscapes of East and West.
Some minor dampstaining, otherwise a fine impression with very fresh colors.