Description

A literally unique set of 33 hand-painted magic lantern slides, dated 1903, and signed by John V. Yarnall. In addition, there is a curious series of 11 silhouette slides manufactured by T.H. McAllister (“Manuf’g Optician, 49 Nassau St, New York”).  Apart from the date when he was working, and the fact that he was an American, we know nothing about Varnall. There are four groups of Yarnall slides. One, with a stereotypical racist theme, deals with the misadventures of an African-American man and a watermelon, a second focuses on American landscape, the third on famous Americans (Robert Fulton, U.S. Grant, Wm McKinley, Commodore Perry, etc) and the last a strange, near surrealistic, tale of a mule who becomes besotted with a female cyclist’s “bloomers” and then comes to a bad end. In addition there are the slides that open and close the evening’s entertainment. The last group includes a self-portrait of Yarnall. Aparently, he put on magic lantern shows and may have done this as an itinerant. The original wooden box used by Yarnall is part of this group–see last image.