According to the James Queen Optical catalog of 1880, this graphoscope cost $1.00 at the time of its sale — a modest price for what was considered a fashionable and refined domestic accessory. It was designed specifically for viewing carte de visite or carte de visite format photographs — portrait photographs mounted on stiff cardboard stock measuring 2.5 by 4.0 inches — which were enormously popular as collectible and exchangeable social keepsakes throughout the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s.
The graphoscope captures perfectly the Victorian fascination with optical novelty and the social rituals that grew up around photography in its earliest decades. A delightful and highly displayable piece of 19th century domestic optical history.
