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TEST PAGE AWAITING PERMISSIONS
The Paris / Phillips Thaumatrope Extended from a brief section on the main Thaumatrope page. This page is only possible through the kind assistance of two collectors, Richard Balzer and Lester Smith. Some years ago Lester showed me an 1825 issue of the paper John Bull that he had found, which - for the first time - revealed all of the subjects and mottoes of Dr. Paris's original thaumatrope set. More recently, Dick posted images of his (perhaps unique?) surviving set of the Paris / Phillips set on his website. My research concerning the subjects illustrated and lampooned in this series, follows.
High society patronage The support of so simple a novelty as the thaumatrope by such an august body as the Royal Institution was ridiculed with relentless irony throughout a leading article in John Bull in 1825, linking its importance to the great thinkers of England. The writer, most likely editor Theodore Edward Hook (1788-1841) - a prolific author known for his witty, incisive criticism and pitiless invective - adds the name of the editor of a competitor's journal, the poet Thomas Campbell, for further ironic effect:  (Lester Smith Collection) The writer sarcastically applauds the thaumatrope for 'the solution which it affords of a hidden and hitherto unintelligible problem, for which the country has to be grateful...' . 1 Despite the caustic criticism the article carefully lists titles of all eighteen subjects, together with the rhymes associated with each and an advertisement; which can only have helped sales. A LIST OF THE SUBJECTS OF THE THAUMATROPE 
 (Richard Balzer) "No.1. A Parrot is presented on one side, and a Cage on the other. On spinning round the card the bird will be seen safely lodged in the cage.- MOTTO . Why is this bird like an Opposition member, who goes over to the Ministers? -ANSWER, Because, by TURNING ROUND HE GAINS A BIRTH, AND CEASES TO BE FREE!!! The most famous thaumatrope subject, much copied. Perhaps refers to a particular member of the Opposition, as yet unidentified, who turned from Whig to Tory (thus supposedly gaining a position, while losing his 'freedom'). [birth no doubt means berth.] 
 (Richard Balzer) "No.2.-A Rose Tree, with a Garden Pot in the reverse. MOTTO , Why does this resemble the Tree of Liberty?- ANSWER . Because it is planted by a Revolution. Thomas Jefferson remarked: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." 2 The original Liberty Tree was a famous elm tree that stood in Boston, USA, in the days before the American Revolution. The tree became a rallying point for the growing resistance to the rule of Britain over the American colonies. 
 (Richard Balzer) "No.3. -A Horse, with a man on the reverse. MOTTO . Turn round and he will Turn on. 
 (Richard Balzer) "No.4.-A leafless branch, which will become verdant on the spinning of the card. - MOTTO .- A new turn to an old joke, or a round-about way to Turn'm Green ! ! ! At least two different published versions of an apocryphal story concerning novelist and playwright Oliver Goldsmith relate to this punning on the name of Turnham Green, then a village on the road between London and the West, and now a park in Chiswick.3 Poor Goldsmith was represented at a table where green peas were served. They were somewhat yellow. Why do you not send them to Kensington? said a neighbour. And why to Kensington? said the host. Why - that's the way to Turnham-green, (Turn 'em green) was the reply. Goldsmith, who never saw a joke in all his life - almost wept with vexation when this was explained to him, and saying that he would give the world to have been the author of it, persuaded his friends to assist him in letting it off at his own table, for a pop of his own. They did their best, to be sure - but when it came to poor Goldsmith's turn to play into the catastrophe, instead of saying, why that's the way to Turnham-Green, he cried out - why that's the way to Brentford ! and then fell back into his chair convulsed with laughter.4 
 (Richard Balzer) "No.5.- Turns of Fashion, or a revolution in dress.  Dutch Paper Doll Book 'Louize' by J. Guykens, c.1820 (Theriault's)
This subject is reminiscent of the cutout paper dolls, with overlaid dresses, being sold at that time - and of course, still popular today.
"He who in Turkish Courts is bred Very likely to refer to Ali Pasha, 1744?-1822, Turkish pasha [military governor] of Yannina (now Ioánnina, Greece), a province of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). Possibly the son of a Turkish family from Anatolia, though generally considered Albanian. The despotic ruler enjoyed torturing and killing his enemies and many innocents, before himself being captured in 1822.
'When asked to surrender for beheading, he famously proclaimed, "My head ... will not be surrendered like the head of a slave," and kept fighting till the end, but was shot through the floor of his room and his head cut off to be sent to the Sultan. Hursid Pasha, to whom it was presented on a large dish of silver plate, rose to receive it, bowed three times before it, and respectfully kissed the beard, expressing aloud his wish that he himself might deserve a similar end. To such an extent did the admiration with which Ali's bravery inspired these men efface the memory of his crimes.' [Wikipedia] [Cit : A contemptuous Term for a member of the merchant class, one who works in or lives in the City of London, i.e--the central business area of London.5] No apparent reason for the emphasis in the first line. No 'hidden meanings' revealed so far, despite my best efforts. "The caprice of this Watchman surpasses all bounds, The social position of the watchman is well described in a recent blog: A regular night watch came into existence after the passing of the Statute of Winchester in 1285, which required householders to maintain the peace in their parishes. Later, constables supervised the "Charlies", a nickname watchmen acquired during Charles II's reign.... The watchmen's duties included crime and fire prevention, waking people who needed to rise early, calling out the time and weather, and helping drunks home. Men could avoid their duty by paying a fine or hiring a deputy. By the eighteenth century, deputies had become common and watchmen tended to be elderly, often drunk, usually incompetent and highly ridiculed by the public. According to The London Encyclopaedia, this mock advertisement appeared in 1821: "Wanted, a hundred thousand men for London watchmen. None need apply for this lucrative situation without being the age of sixty, seventy, eighty or ninety years; blind with one eye and seeing very little with the other; crippled in one or both legs; deaf as a post; with an asthmatical cough that tears them to pieces; whose speed will keep pace with a snail, and the strength of whose arm would not be able to arrest an old washerwoman of fourscore returned from a hard day's fag at the washtub...." Made of timber or stone, the wooden [watch boxes] provided targets for bored young "gentlemen" who tipped them over (and the snoozing watchman within) for sport....6 ...as shown in this cartoon. It's by George Cruikshank, who was responsible for the drawing of Mr Seymour demonstrating the thaumatrope, that appeared in Dr. Paris's Philosophy in Sport. We know that Cruikshank drew some zoetrope strips decades later; could it be that he was also responsible for the drawings of the original thaumatropes? No hard evidence, but perhaps a possibility. In 1820 five conspirators in the Cato Street conspiracy had been hanged for High Treason, and their heads subsequently severed from their bodies. Their plan had been to kill the Prime Minister and the entire cabinet, thereby overthrowing the government, and then to set up a Committee of Public Safety which would supervise a radical revolution.7 "Prometheus gave life, as old Fabulists say, "The plants were Men, Believe but Ovid's strain, This couplet refers to the epic Roman poem Metamorphosis by Ovid.8 Drawings of people composed from everyday objects were popular over a long period.
"The faithful couple, who with true love burn, I think there's something very specific going on here, politically, relating to a particular Whig politician; most likely Charles, 2nd Earl Grey (of Earl Grey tea fame). The term 'top of the Pole' could mean top job (Prime Minister). The Whigs failed in 1820, but in 1830 Grey would indeed become Prime Minister. As with the Cato Street Conspiracy, the 'late Westminster Election' referred to here had also taken place in 1820 (in March-April). It seems perhaps unlikely that this topical political joke was still current five years later when the thaumatrope set was published. Perhaps the puns and discs had actually been prepared some years earlier, but their publication delayed as being too risky. Ali Pasher's beheading was in January 1822, so if this is the source of the subject for disc No.6, then that would be the earliest period for the Thaumatrope's original drawings - assuming of course that they were all produced at the same time. "Legs, Arms, and Head, alone appear, Or could it be that the letters stand for Fortis cadere, [cedere non potest] (The brave may fall, but never yield), in reference to Revolutionaries, indicating a real and dangerous political statement; hence Paris's initial reluctance to be associated with the device? Here, Paris admits to the relative uselessness of the Thaumatrope. In the English harlequinade, Pantaloon (originally Pantalone in the Commedia dell'arte) emerged as the greedy, elderly father of Columbine who tries to keep the lovers separated. [Wikipedia] Here he meets his end. The final word indicates that this was the last thaumatrope in the set. John Bull concludes:
Paris's book Philosophy in Sport appeared two years after the thaumatrope set. A vignette showing Mr Seymour demonstating the thaumatrope to the two children introduced the relevant chapter, and was drawn by George Cruikshank. In 1837 a pirate translation of the book, entitled Nouveau Manuel complet des Jeux, enseignment la Science, appeared in France, with the author given as T. Richard.11 Cruikshank's little sketch was traced over and reproduced (credited to M. Godard), but with one small but deliberate difference. In the original drawing, the image on the disc had been represented by squiggles. In the pirate copy, the image suggests the face of a coin. What's odd about this is that when Brewster, decades later, was recalling the introduction of the thaumatrope, he described a single example that (if it really existed) was a reposte to Dr. Paris - "How to turn a penny. / A new trick from Paris" - on one side a gentleman in black, with his hands out in the act of spinning a thaumatrope, and the design on the other side a penny-piece.12 NOTES 1. The quotes from the review of the thaumatrope are all from A LIST OF THE SUBJECTS OF THE THAUMATROPE John Bull, Vol.5 No.17, 24 April 1825, 1-2. The full text is here: JOHN BULL 1 [in preparation]. "↩"
2. Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, Paris, 13 Nov. 1787. 3. The combination of Goldsmith's literary work and his dissolute lifestyle led Horace Walpole to give him the epithet inspired idiot. [Wikipedia] "↩" 4. Miscellany, American Masonic Record, and Albany Saturday Magazine, 1830, Vol.3, p.5. "↩" 5. http://www.regencyassemblypress.com/Regency_Lexicon.html "↩" 6. http://historicalhearts.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/night-watchmen-through-ages-with-little.html "↩"
7. The Cato Street Conspiracy. 8. Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC-AD 17/18), known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, had by 8 AD completed his most ambitious work, the Metamorphoses, a hexameter epic poem in 15 books which encyclopedically catalogues transformations in Greek and Roman mythology from the emergence of the cosmos to the deification of Julius Caesar. The stories follow each other in the telling of human beings transformed to new bodies - trees, rocks, animals, flowers, constellations, etc. "↩"
9. London Mechanics' Register 16 April 1825 (Vol. 1, 397) carried a review, The Thaumatrope, from the Hereford Independent, that picked out this particular verse. "↩"
10. During his lifetime the English poet Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) was one of the most celebrated, although his fame has long since been eclipsed by his Romantic colleagues and friends Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron. [Wikipedia] The quotes from the review of the thaumatrope are all from A LIST OF THE SUBJECTS OF THE THAUMATROPE, John Bull, Vol.5 No.17, 24 April 1825, 1-2. "↩"
11. Richard, T. 1837. "↩" REFERENCES Richard, T. Nouveau Manuel complet des Jeux, enseignment la Science, ou Introduction à l'Étude de la Mécanique, de la Physique, etc., contenant des Théories scientifiques et des Recherches historiques sur les Jeux les plus usuels with woodcuts, 2 vols. 1837. A plagiarism of Paris's Philosophy in Sport. Tracings of George Cruikshank's illustrations are here credited to M Godard. |
