Discovering the Little-Known: An Interview with Jonathan Gestetner

Discovering the Little-Known: An interview with Jonathan Gestetner by Shijia Yu

Jonathan Gestetner is a private collector, and the director of Marlborough Rare Books. Together with his partner Jacqueline Gestetner, he has amassed the world’s largest collection of paper peepshows. The Gestetners bequeathed this collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2016.

Shijia Yu is a research student in the School of Arts at Birkbeck. Her research focuses on nineteenth-century British paper peepshows, and the working title for her thesis is ‘Amusing, Interesting and Curious’: A Study of Nineteenth-Century British Paper Peepshows.’

Listen to the recording of the talk here.

This interview will be followed by two Paper Peepshow events on Tuesday 15 May, as part of the 2018 Birkbeck Arts Week. Between 3:30 and 6:00 pm, you’re welcome to participate in ‘Paper Peepshow: Make Your Own’, a practical workshop led by the famous artist Su Blackwell. In the evening starting at 6:30 pm, there is a panel discussion entitled ‘Paper Peepshow: Peep into the Rabbit Hole’. Speakers include John Plunkett, Associate Professor of English at the University of Exeter, Dr Catherine Yvard, Special Collections curator at National Art Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Marina Warner, Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, and private collector Jonathan Gestetner. More information and booking details can be found here.

This interview and the Arts Week Paper Peepshow events are generously supported by Birkbeck Lorraine Lim Postgraduate Fund, Birkbeck Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, and the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association Education Trust.