'Protean views' are a table-top version of the 'diorama', which Louis Daguerre brought to London from Paris as a public entertainment in 1821 but only later (before 1839) developed into a full double-effect transformation from one view to another, rather than just a change of effects on the same scene. They have one view on the front of the paper - usually a calm topographical scene or famous monument and something dramatic like a battle or conflagration on the reverse. When lit from the back the view transforms into the scene on that side: in this case Greenwich Hospital changes to a view of Trafalgar. William Spooner of 377, The Strand, London published a large number of these numbered 'Protean' views. He also issued similar items (about 1837) in which, for example, posies of flowers transformed into portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.