Chinese fireworks
Optical toy box producing twinkling light effects.
Chinese fireworks, also called feux pyriques or feux arabesques, are optical toy boxes that display pictures with twinkling light effects. The pictures are printed or painted on perforated paper, parchment or cardboard plates. A rotating wheel with a spiraling pattern on coloured transparent paper causes light to flicker and change colour as it shines through the perforations.
Quick Facts
- Alternate names
- feux pyriques, feux arabesques
- Picture plate sizes
- 32 cm (1 ft 1 in) and 40 cm / 1 ft 4 in
- Primary production period
- between 1775 and 1800
- Primary production location
- The Netherlands
Facts from the source article.
History
Chinese fireworks likely developed from raree shows of the 17th and 18th centuries, which used coloured transparent paper behind cutouts lit by candles. Most surviving examples were made in The Netherlands between 1775 and 1800, and the device was also popular in 19th-century England. Large boxes were rarely made after 1850, though simpler versions for children appeared. The Encyclopædia Britannica editions from 1810 to 1823 explained how to produce optical imitations of fireworks. The principle was later adapted for magic lantern slides, and the chromatrope is considered a further development.
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