Copper-engraved vue d'optique, hand-colored. Titled in top margin in French in reverse, and in bottom margin in French, Dutch, Italian and German; and "J. van Kaastert delin., Georg Balthasar Probst, excud." 11x16 plus margins. [with] Vue du Canal et de l'Hotel de Fonderie de Canon a la Haye." Copper-engraved view, hand-colored. Title and imprint of Basset, Paris, in lower margin. 10¼x15½. Together, 2 views of The Hague.

The first is a well-executed and pleasant depiction of the Lutheran Church in the Hague, which rests on the right bank of a canal on which are pole-driven boats, lined with trees, and a number of strollers and riders on the banks, and one succesful angler. The second view is similar, but not as accomplished. These attractive vues d'optique, designed to be viewed through convex lenses, known variously as zograscopes, optiques, optical machines and peepshows, were an optical entertainment of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. George Balthasar Probst was a well-known German artist and engraver who produced architectural views of places around the world intended as vues d'optique.