From 1839 to 1847, Richard Evan Sly engraved a handful of revolving prints under the banner ‘R. Evan Sly’s New & Amusing Mechanical Prints’, which were sold by a number of London printsellers. Each lithographed scene has one or more windows cut into it over the characters' faces. Pinned to the verso is a rotating paper wheel, with a large number of alternative facial expressions. The wheel can be turned to cycle through a variety of smiles, grimaces, and leers to transform the main image. The Temperley Collection contains eight of Sly's mechanical prints: 'A Charming Young Sentinel'; 'The Bachelor's Looking Glass'; 'The Rivals'; 'The Infant' ("Mewling and peuking in the Nurse's arms"!); 'A Few of my Fair Admirers' (two examples); 'Grimaldi's Drolleries'; 'Garrick and Hogarth or the Artist Puzzled'. The latter is the most sophisticated, with the portraits that appear on Hogarth's canvases changing, in addition to the faces of the artist and his sitter.



Other revolving transformation prints include William Spooner's 'Changing Drolleries', with examples showing a family playing music together, and a couple bickering in bed, Dean's 'The Royal Oak', in which revolving portraits of the royal family are set within a literal family tree, William Follit's 'Punch's Locomotive Picture Gallery', which shows the puppet displaying a selection of 240 pictures, and Chapman & Hall's 'Physiognoscopography', or 'Anatomy of the Stage', which cycles through 288 portraits of characters and actors.



Toymaker and publisher J. A. Reeves published a game called the 'Prophetic Index and Path to Matrimony', which is "dedicated to every unmarried sun & daughter of Adam". The octagonal chromolithograph has a church at its centre, with a clock whose hand can be made to spin. Complicated pathways lead to the entrance, along which finely-dressed people wander in couples or groups. On the verso, the rules are explained:



"1. Any Lady or Gentleman may name their age, or a number between 13 and 50, and believe that this apparatus never told an untruth, although first cousin to a fortune teller.

2. The holder of this, will then turn the Index within, taking care not to press the outer Cards too tightly together, until the Number mentioned presents itself over the Church Door.

3. The Door may then be opened without further ceremony, and the long looked for secret unfolded."



When the door is opened, it reveals a prophecy, for example:



“Your changeable fancies you soon must forego,

Or they’ll plunge you in misery, affliction, and woe;

For many a heart has been wounded already

By conduct so wavering, so light, and unsteady”.



One volvelle, entitled 'Choosing a Husband', shows a woman sitting at her table, contemplating portraits of various suitors; the caption reads "ah there's a decent looking fellow at last". Another, manuscript, volvelle, made by one William Hart at “Mr Well’s School”, allows the user to calculate the time difference between major cities such as London (in bold), Berlin, Bombay, "Pekin", and Washington. By turning the volvelle so that, for example, London is in line with the Roman numeral representing four o'clock AM, it is shown to be midnight in the Chinese capital. Along the lower edge is the Italian phrase "fatti e non parole" ('deeds and not words').