(Transformation Sets / Asian Art / Pre-Cinematic Visual Culture) HAND-PAINTED TRANSFORMATION SET: ONE PORTRAIT BACKING CARD PLUS TWELVE THIN FLEXIBLE MICA COSTUME OVERLAYS.
Circa 1800. Each item measures 4-1/4" x 3"; housing box measures 5" x 3-3/4". Comprising 12 thin, flexible transparent mica overlays, each intricately hand-painted with detailed elements of elaborate Indian attire and various traditional accessories. Accompanied by one opaque backing card containing the baseline painted portrait and background scenery. The entire set is housed in its original, contemporary paper-covered, sliding-top wooden box. This exceptional optical amusement functions by layering the transparent sheets sequentially over the baseline image, immediately altering the costume, gender, and hairstyle of the portrait. The hand-painted overlays are preserved in spectacular, vibrant condition. For a comparable bibliographical reference regarding the history of paper cut-outs and moveable overlays, see Metken, Sigrid, Geschnittenes Papier, München: Verlag Georg D. W. Callwey, 1978, p. 164.
The physical condition of the hand-painted mica overlays is graded FINE (utilizing the standard antiquarian scale for works on paper). The individual sheets remain structurally flexible, and the hand-applied pigments are remarkably bright, crisp, and intact. The physical condition of the portrait backing card and wooden box is graded VERY GOOD, exhibiting a few small, isolated areas of paint loss to the backing card that do not disrupt the central presentation, and typical, authentic light shelf wear to the paper-covered sliding box.
Indian Mica Paintings and the Colonial Moveable Toy
Originating primarily in regions such as Patna and Benares (Varanasi) during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, paintings on thin sheets of muscovite mica were originally created by native Indian artists to serve the tourist trade, particularly British East India Company officials. While the majority of these works were collected as standalone miniature paintings of local professions and festivals, this specimen represents a highly sophisticated, interactive variant: the transformation set. By utilizing the transparent, glass-like property of cleaved natural mica, the artist allows the viewer to physically manipulate the subject's identity, superimposing layered saris, turbans, jewelry, and distinct cultural accoutrements over a singular face. It stands as a brilliant precursor to the nineteenth-century moveable toy book and the modern celluloid overlay.
Series Bibliography, Census, and Market Scarcity
Because of the extreme structural fragility inherent to natural mica—which easily delaminates, cracks, or flakes under fluctuating humidity—intact sets containing twelve original overlays and the original baseline card are practically non-existent on the open market. Most surviving examples have been broken up or suffered catastrophic paint flaking. A current global sweep of the OCLC/WorldCat database locates only one specimen matching a similar configuration preserved in institutional special collections worldwide: a structurally related ten costume overlay variant held securely within the permanent archives of the Morgan Library & Museum. The presence of the original, contemporary paper-covered sliding wooden box makes this complete survival an extraordinary scarcity for institutions or advanced private holdings.
THIS EXCEEDINGLY RARE CIRCA 1800 INDIAN COSTUME TRANSFORMATION SET, PRESERVED WITH TWELVE ORIGINAL HAND-PAINTED MICA OVERLAYS AND ITS CONTEMPORARY WOODEN BOX, REPRESENTS A CRITICAL ACQUISITION FOR INSTITUTIONAL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS OR EXTRAORDINARY PRIVATE COLLECTIONS DEVOTED TO THE HISTORY OF ASIAN ART, COMPANY SCHOOL DRAWINGS, OR PRE-CINEMATIC VISUAL CULTURE.
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