Rolling-Ball Lantern Shadow Projection, China, 19th Century

The Rolling-ball lantern is made by two copper alloy engraved hemispheres inside which there is a lamp, held in vertical position by a gyroscopic mechanism. On the copper alloy surface are engraved birds, flowers and leaves, forming a filigree pattern. When the lamp inside the ball is on, and the ball is rolling on the ground, shadows are thrown on the wall.

?

Shadow play (like Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, the French "Ombres chinoises") is a very important part in the pre-cinema study. Like the cinema, it tells stories, using two-dimensional animated images projected on a screen. The classical shadow play is made by cut-out figures, sometimes dressed and adorned, or, simply by the use of hands, which are held between a source of light and a screen.