Treasures of pre-cinema history 

...of Wilhelm Burucker, he called himself a “Mechanicus”. The workshop was founded in the early 1760th. Burucker offered soon magic lanterns. In the late 1780th, he sold a wide range of physical, magnetic, mechanical and optical amusements. The items were packed in little boxes, covered in a red white marble paper, which is characteristic for the Burucker workshop (Ref.: Thomas Stauss, Frühe Spielwelten. Hochwald (Schweiz) 2015, page 273).

The two boxes in the gallery are wrapped in the same marble-paper, typical for Burucker. The binding of the slides was also done in the same paper. The motives do show very fine outlines and are very precise in their colouration. Some pictures show of “dramatic movement”. This suggests that Burucker worked with professional glass painters of the “old school”, before toy lanterns were introduced.

Burucker published in 1794 a price schedule of "magnetischen und anderen Kunststachen", unfortunately no copy is known to have survived.  Burucker tried to copy the success of the  new established toy dealer Georg Hieronimus Bestelmeier in Nuremberg. It is almost certain that magic lanterns and slides were offered in Burucker's price schedule. This was Burucker's last attempt to gain a foothold in the new market for philosophical toys, before he handed over the distribution of his made items to Bestelmeier.

The slides are from the period of the mid 1780th to the mid 1790th.