Spooner's Protean Views No. 4. Destruction of a Swiss Village by an Avalanche. [Alps. Transparency print.] Alps,Ephemera,Mountaineering

A large card mount, approx. 29 x 23 cm, with central panel excised as issued to hold a hand-coloured print of a reindeer-drawn sledge in an icy landscape, secondary print pasted to verso and concealed by tissue paper, printed caption beneath with two vignettes of a of Swiss chalets, in very good condition. William Spooner's 'Protean Views' were a form of optical toy that, when held to the light, reveal additional imagery. In this instance, a view of an Alpine lake with chalets and a bridge in the foreground transforms to a nigh-time view of the same scene.