An example of the coloured plates within Les Portes Fermées ou Les Doubles Surprises sold by Anderson & Garland for £1600.
Offered as part of an Anderson & Garland (25% buyer’s premium) sale on November 29, it comprises, within a slim pink cardboard box, or folder with a printed black on green title, six little blue folders labelled ‘Le Portrait’, ‘Le Temple de Diane’, ‘Méphistophélès’, ‘La Tentation’, ‘La Française’, and ‘Le Fleurs’.
They contain miniature cards, each presenting a character standing in front of a door that, when opened, reveals a second character and then, via a transparency revealed when held up to the light, a third – hence the Doubles Surprises wording of the title. They are undated but thought to be from c.1840.
The outer case and three of the six blue folders that make up Les Portes Fermées ou Les Doubles Surprises sold by Anderson & Garland for £1600.
A New York Public Library video features a similar booklet acquired for the Pforzheimer Collection.
Fewer than five examples are believed to have survived.
This rarity had been found among items from a house clearance that had been donated to Tynedale Hospice at Home, a charity that offers bereavement support to families in the region.
