# The Peep Show, or the Magic Lantern (La Curiosité ou La Lanterne Magique)

- By: Manufacture nationale de Sèvres (French, founded 1740; Modeled by Etienne-Maurice Falconet (French, 1716-1791))
- Date: c. 1757
- Medium: Soft-paste unglazed porcelain (biscuit)
- Classification: Ceramics
- Dimensions: 15.9 × 17.2 × 13.4 cm (6 1/4 × 6 3/4 × 5 1/4 in.)
- Culture: Sèvres
- Credit line: Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Andrew G. Bustin
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/17052)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/7b03544d-a3a0-8d6f-4778-84a0bbce0c48/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Beginning in the mid-1750s, biscuit, or unglazed porcelain, replaced glazed porcelain in sculpture because fine details were sometimes obscured by glazes. In addition, the matte surface of biscuit pieces resembled marble, a medium favored in sculpture. Unglazed porcelain figures were often sold with dinner services, and, as such, they replaced fragile sugar figures, which had adorned dessert tables of the previous era.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0