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American Mutoscope & Bio Co. Mutoscope Reel 1895

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:50.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 300.00 USD
American Mutoscope & Bio Co. Mutoscope Reel 1895
Featured in this lot is this comedic mutoscope reel done by the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company titled, "A Ray of Sunshine After The Rain" done in 1895. The company was founded in 1895 by William Kennedy Dickson, an inventor at Thomas Edison's lab, who helped pioneer the technology of capturing moving images on film. Dickson left the lab in 1895 and joined with inventors Herman Casler, Henry Marvin and businessman Elias Koopman to incorporate the American Mutoscope Company in New Jersey on December 30th, 1895. The firm manufactured the Mutoscope and made flip-card movies for it as a rival to Edison's Kinetoscope. The company soon became a leader in the film industry, with distribution and production subsidiaries around the world, including the British Mutoscope Company. The reel is subject number 1241 and has a serial number of 64. It is titled, "A Ray of Sunshine After The Rain" and shows a comedic scene of a woman getting drenched in water on the sidewalk. The reel shows good condition overall with some damage to a few of the photo slides but no other signs of damage are present. The reel measures 10 5/8" in diameter and 2 3/4" W and weighs 5 pounds and 14 ounces.