Porcelain Lithophanes & Night Lights | Fiddleheads

How a lithophane works

A lithophane is a picture carved into porcelain by thickness rather than by colour. Where the porcelain is thin, more light passes through and the image reads pale; where it is thick, it stays dark. Unlit, it looks like a blank white panel. Switch the lamp on and the scene appears. The technique dates from the 1820s and has never really been improved on.