The Systêm Thibault
SOLD December 2001 |
Vintage advertising placard for SYSTÊM THIBAULT movable street lamps, with two attached albumen prints of the SYSTÊM in action, ca. 1865. Prints approx. 5.25 x 3 inches (13x7 cm), entire sheet is 13.5 x 11.5 inches (34x29 cm), with folds and a few small tears.
The 19th century fascination with gizmos is here seen in elaborate, Goldbergian machinery designed to replace the lamplighter's simple stepladder or lighting torch via a complex arrangement of nested tubing, counterweights and pulleys. The juxtaposed images work somewhat like a motion study and emphasize the sprightly agility to be found in lamplighters using the "SYSTÊM THIBAULT Console et Colonne ascendantes".
Images and text copyright © 2000-2023 by Christopher Wahren Fine Photographs