Hello, and welcome to the The Projection Box - established in 1994, and now waking up after a period of slumber. Many of our new titles, and new editions of titles long out of print, are being made available as print-on-demand (POD) editions from Blurb.com - visit the Blurb website to learn more about print-on-demand, or just click on links in the details of new releases below. If you order one of these books from the Blurb website, it will be printed for you and mailed direct to you by Blurb.

NEW titles and new editions are now available:

To celebrate the Bicentenary of the great writer's birth, we are pleased to announce a new book in full colour, detailing the very few daguerreotype portraits of Charles Dickens, and the single known daguerreotype portrait of his wife Catherine.

Louis Daguerre's new marvel had been unveiled to the world in 1839, a few weeks after the publication of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby had also been published in the late 1830s, and Dickens was already famous when he had his likeness taken - an image now sadly lost - in London's first daguerreotype studio, operated by Richard Beard, just weeks after it opened. Dickens's portrait had been painted many times before he visited Antoine Claudet's studio for a daguerreotype sitting, around 1851-2. The writer's next 'counterfeit presentments' - including a stereoscopic image - were taken by John E. Mayall who was also responsible for a daguerreotype of Catherine Dickens around 1854. By then photography was changing, and the daguerreotype process was losing favour. Dickens would have his photograph taken perhaps a hundred times in various formats before his death in 1870. This monograph, which is the result of extensive new research, investigates the very few daguerreotype images of the great author and his wife. With additional text by photographic historian David Simkin.

10 x 8, 44 pages, many illustrations, full colour. (Printed on coated stock.)
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As the Lumiere brothers perfected their Cinematographe, they also devised the Kinora, a miniature domestic viewing instrument that borrowed from, and adapted, the Mutoscope, a 'flip book' invention by Casler. First introduced in France, The Kinora was the most successful of the 'home movie' machines marketed in Britain before 1912, and served three purposes. Firstly, it was possible to buy (or rent) popular reels of subjects primarily intended for theatrical presentation as films. Secondly, it became possible to have one's Kinora motion portrait taken in a professional photographic studio. Thirdly, an amateur camera using paper negative eventually made it possible for amateurs to take their own moving pictures for Kinora viewing.

Barry Anthony, specialist in theatrical history and chronicler of the Biograph company has written an introduction (with additional material by Stephen Herbert) to his specially-compiled listing of flip-photo Kinora reels, most of which are professionally-produced subjects that were also shown publicly as projected films.

A fascinating booklet, certain to appeal to mutoscope collectors, silent film buffs, cine camera collectors, home movie researchers.

Numerous illustrations including frame enlargements, patent drawings, original advertisements for the camera and viewer, photos of all the different Kinora viewer models. Now in print once again, following many requests.

In addition, the new extended version includes a reprint of the Bond's Ltd. 1911 Catalogue of Living Pictures that your may show in your own home, a listing of Kinora reels, included by kind permission of Pierre Patau. By 1911, some earlier reels had been discontinued, but many subjects not in Barry Anthony's book appear here, and other subjects are more precisely titled and described, adding considerably to our knowledge of the full range of reels. This catalogue finally shows us exactly which reels were available to the public at one particular time. Reproduced from the only known surviving copy.

9 x 7, 78 pages, many illustrations, black & white, with colour cover. (Printed on uncoated paper, similar to that used for paperback novels.)

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After years out of print, this elusive book is now available once again, and in an affordable edition.

In 1862, 'Professor' John Henry Pepper of London's Royal Polytechnic Institution set about re-designing a concept by Henry Dircks for showing a ghost on stage. An initial collaboration soon ended, and in Dircks' publication The Ghost (1863) he writes that Pepper had 'deluded' him in their arrangements over the invention. In The True History of the Ghost (1890) Pepper tells his version of events, and describes the workings and developments of the effect.

In a special introduction to this facsimile of Pepper's book Mervyn Heard, specialist in Victorian optical entertainments, reviews the history of the effect; as a successor to the Phantasmagoria magic lantern show, its use in 19th century theatre, and adaptation as the 'Alabastra' motion picture version. Several additional illustrations are included.

9 x 7 , 66 pages. 8 illustrations. (Printed on uncoated paper, similar to that used for paperback novels.)

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The True Histo...

By John Henry Pepper

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All other publications from The Projection Box may still be ordered direct from us - check out the various titles in the BOOKS and CDs pages - links in column on right.

We are the official distributors of The Magic Lantern Society (UK) titles. (Click BOOKS button on right and link through).