Carmontelle diorama cartonnage three compartment letter holder French pink marble

W:10 5/8 H:7 5/8 D:5 7/8 Louis Carmontelle (1717-1806) painted portraits, designed sets and gardens, wrote stories, and invented a precursor to film. His transparencies were landscapes painted on long bands of paper and wound on two rollers to create a slowly moving picture with narration provided by the presenter. Reproduced here is a section of a transparency depicting the pavilions alongside the canals of the Seine one hour west of Paris. The canals disappeared with later improvements on the river channel.