Summary

Set of seventeen 'life model' magic lantern slides which was used in telling the story of "Gabriel Grub; or the Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton" using a magic lantern projector. A booklet accompanies the set of slides.

The story was based on a chapter of Charles Dickens' "Pickwick Papers", originally published in serialised form between March 1836 and October 1837.

During a presentation, the story was read and slides projected at certain pre-determined times. Instructions as to when to project a slide appear within the text.

Life model slides were photographic slides using live models, costumed and posed. The background was usually either painted in later, or consisted of a back drop as would be used in a theatre production.

Themes included narratives, temperance and religious subjects, as well as songs and comic situations. These type of slides are generally thought to have been commercially produced between c. 1870 and the First World War, although their height of popularity was in the 1880s and 1890s.

This slide set was produced by Bamforth & Co., a company based in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, England. The company was one of only a handful of businesses in England which produced these type of slides.

This lantern slide set is part of the Francis Collection of pre-cinematic apparatus and ephemera, acquired by the Australian and Victorian Governments in 1975. David Francis was the curator of the National Film and Sound Archive of the British Film Institute as well as being a co-founder of the Museum of the Moving Image in London, which was operational between 1988 and 1999.

Description of Content

LS 705-721 (17 slides). Set of seventeen 'life model' magic lantern slides which was used in telling the story of "Gabriel Grub; or the Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton"

Physical Description

Most slides have a circular coloured image on a glass plate. Slide number 16 has a square image. Slides numbering 8 to 14 have images of smaller dimensions. The edges of each slide are bound with tape.

More Information

  • Collection Names

    Francis Collection

  • Collecting Areas

    Images & Image Making

  • Acquisition Information

    Loan & Subsequent Donation from Australian Film Institute (AFI), Mr David Francis, by Nov 1990

  • Producer

    Bamforth & Co., Station Road, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, England, Great Britain, 1850s-1890s

  • Collector

    Mr David Francis, London, Middlesex, England, Great Britain, 1991

  • Format

    Lantern Slide, Standard (3¼ in. x 3¼ in.), Hand Coloured

  • Inscriptions

    The printed title 'Gabriel Grub' is on a sticker placed in the top left corner of each slide. Each slide is numbered in a sequence from 1 to 17 in the right hand top corner by a printed sticker. The title slide and first story slide both carry the number 1. There is no slide with the number 2. Most slides are numbered in a sequence from 1 to 17 in the bottom left. Slide number 4 has this number featured on the bottom right. The numbers are hand written on a sticker. Each number is placed upside down in relation to the image.

  • Classification

    Photography

  • Category

    History & Technology

  • Discipline

    Technology

  • Type of item

    Image

  • Overall Dimensions

    82 mm (Width), 82 mm (Height)

  • References

    [Book] Robinson, David, et al. 2001. Encyclopaedia of the Magic Lantern., 2001, 26-27, 172 Pages

  • Keywords

    Entertainment, Lantern Slides