John Dennis of Stereo World gives his opinion on the boxed set of cards produced by The London Stereoscopic Company, titled “Victorian Gems”.
Perhaps you’ll find this little beauty of a set under your Christmas tree, if you give your nearest and dearest heavy hints ! [VICTORIAN GEMS and other LSC items available HERE]
BOXED GEMS
– review by John Dennis
From STEREO WORLD
the journal of the NSA
(National Stereoscopic Association of the USA)
November/December 2015 p3.
The practice of including descriptive guide books in boxed sets of stereoviews has seen a partial revival with the latest such set from the London Stereoscopic Company, Victorian Gems by Brian May and Denis Pellerin. But rather than geographical data or historical information, the Gems booklet provides instructions on using the enclosed OWL stereoscope, tips on 3-D photography, a brief background on the history and collecting of stereoviews, and descriptions of the three sources of the set’s views. Twelve views in each of three boxes represent the London Stereoscopic Company books A Village Lost and Found, Diableries – Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell and The Poor Man’s Picture Gallery.
The views selected from A Village Lost and Found include the original T.R. Williams “Scenes in Our Village” titles and quotations on the back. The views from Diableries surpass even those restored and reproduced in the book, in that the pierced, red eyes of the skeletons are actually reflective – the effect being about as close as you could come to that of reproducing a real tissue view. To be honest, the effect is even better than many tissue views, as cases of sloppy piercing have been corrected to place those glowing red eyes in the appropriate stereo plane. The precision of this effort is clear in views including numerous eyes, like A 11 “Review of the Infernal Guard.” The glowing eyes aren’t just at the planes of the skeletal faces, but uniformly glow from within the skulls.
When studied in the OWL viewer, views from The Poor Man’s Picture Gallery reveal the impressive complexity of the sets and poses, none more so than “Puritan Soldiers with Prisoners” by James Elliott. The sources of the inspiration for all the views are provided on the backs, the above being the painting “Plundering of Basing House” by Charles Landseer.
While hardly a substitute for the books they represent, the views in the Victorian Gems set could prove to be an effective (or diabolical!) say to grab the attention of someone potentially interested in the true photographic depth of the Victorian age.
Animated Diableries Join Mask
One Night in Hell, Brian May and London Stereoscopic Company’s award winning, seven minute 3-D short, will be a bonus extra on the upcoming 3-D Blu-ray relase of The Mask from 30D film Archive, LLC and Kino Lorber Studio Classics. The restored version of the 1961 classic sold out its premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and the Blu-ray release also includes the option to watch it in the original anaglyphic format.
