lot 293 in Nov 9 auction – a wooden ICA stereo viewer.
Toronto. As a little child sitting in a rocking chair in a dimly lit farmhouse room, I first looked at stereo cards through a Holmes viewer. I was fascinated and thrilled. Scenes leaped out at me as if I was there (all be it in black and white).
As humans, we are able to see in three dimensions because the image from each eye is at a slightly different view-point and the two images are fused into one by our brain.
For many centuries, drawings – simple and ornate – were used to let our eyes/brain merge them into a 3D view. With the advent of photography it was possible to take two photographs of a person or scene from slightly different view-points and ‘see’ the result as a 3D photo.
Courses have been offered; papers written for course outlines (like this one by Dr Gerhard Roth, of Carlton University in Ottawa) ; and specialty companies sprung up to make and sell stereo cards that amuse and educate us. 3D cameras were made to simultaneously create the two images viewed by 3D viewers that helped our brains merge the resulting prints or transparencies (View-Master anyone?).
In our Auction this coming Sunday, November 9th, there are a number of 3D cameras and viewers such as this ICA viewer, lot 293. A fancier ICA viewer (newer?) is shown here.
NB. The title of this post sprung to mind from the 1968 song, “What a Wonderful World” sung here by the great Louis Armstrong.
