1 object ; 36 cm high (fully extended), screen 23 cm in diameter, base 14 x 2 cm, with case 16 x 4 x 2 cm
Collection:
Rare Books and Manuscripts
Copyright Status:
Copyright Not Evaluated
Classification:
Three-Dimensional Artifacts
Notes:
A portable shade such as this could be deployed to block excess light, indoors or outdoors. In 1820, Frederick Mighells van Heythuysen (of Sidmouth Street, London) filed a patent for a device of similar design. It is described as a "method of making portable machines or instruments to be placed upon a desk or table, and so contrived as to fold or not into a small compass ... to support a silken shade, for the purpose of protecting the eyes from a strong light; added to which is a green, blue, or other coloured glass, in a frame, and in such a position, that, when placed opposite a window, lamp or candle, it will take off the glare of white paper, by shedding a green or blue, or any other tinge dependant upon the colour of the glass reflector, upon the book or paper placed within the bounds of its shadow, so that print, however small, or writing, is rendered more plain and legible, by reason of the glare being thus taken off the white paper, and particularly by candle-light ..." See: The repertory of patent inventions, second series, vol. 39 (1821), p. 271. The patentee is presumably one and the same with Frederick Miles van Heythuysen, barrister-at-law and author of several legal writings, ca. 1812 to 1816.
Subject Terms:
Van Heythuysen, F. M. | Artists' tools -- Specimens. | Reading.