Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

99 French WWI Stereoviews [W/ VIEWER]

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France: NP. Box. Housed in a slotted wooden box, with metal latches and handle, measuring approximately 8x6x5.5", this is a truly remarkable collection of 99 French WWI stereoscopic glass slides, containing 97 individual images (2 are duplicates), from a much larger collection of images*. Also included is a WWII-era wooden stereo viewer housed in a cardboard feldpost box.

Spanning the entirety of the First World War (1914-1918) on the Western Front (mostly in North and Northwestern France, and a few in Belgium), these stereoscopic plates capture powerful, harrowing and gruesome images of death, destruction and carnage on a massive scale. It is readily apparent from viewing these images, how both the manmade and natural environments were molded, destroyed and completely reshaped by the forces of the war.

The images captured are mostly of French soldiers, both corpses and the living, usually in the direct aftermath of various battles, campaigns, military assaults, or other incidents. Also depicted are the dead, captured and wounded of the German forces. There a few shots taken in the midst of combat.

Each slide measures approximately 5x2 1/4", includes descriptive captions in French in the space between the left and right images, and is usually numbered. Text in French.

Depicted are:

The Battle of Verdun (1916), Battle of the Ardennes (1914), Battle of Le Esparges (1915), Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf (Vieil-Armand, 1914-1915), First and Second Battle of the Aisne (Including the areas of Montgarni, Pinon [in ruins], Chavonne, Vauxaillon and Laffaux, 1914-1917), Battle of the Yser (1914), Battle of the Somme (including Ham, and Albert [in ruins], 1916), and The First Battle of the Marne (1914).

Other specific locations depicted include: the Alsace region, Lusse, Metzeral (ruins), The Forrest of Parroy, Cote du Poivre, Souain, Douaumont, The Forest of Argonne, Champagne-Ardenne Region, Montdidier (1918), The ruins of Dixmude (Belgium), Meuse Deparment, Vosges, Courcelles (1918), Avocourt, Staden (Belgium), Fleury, Woevre (1915), Fort de la Pompelle, Vaux-Chapitre, and Cragonne.

The incredible visual content of the set includes:
Soldiers (mostly French, some German), trenches and trench warfare, fortifications, ruined towns and cities (including Metzeral and Pinon, as well as Dixmude and Albert in Belgium), corpses (both French and German), post-battlefield destruction, soldiers at the ready, forts, various natural environments (including forests, mountains, plains and hills), barbed-wire defenses, supply runs, startling images of horses (Argonne) and corpses hanging from trees, soldiers socializing and playing cards, tanks (both exteriors and interiors), crashed planes, exploding mines, piles of human remains, surrendering and wounded German soldiers, trenches and battlefields in the snow, improvised graves, clearing and burial of the dead, transportation of the wounded and many other horrors of war, including detailed gory images of injuries, severed limbs and massive facial destruction.

Wooden box with a black stain on the front side, and a few light scratches and abrasions. Many of the glass slides have minor to light scratches. Two slides are chipped and cracked to the point of affecting the images. 2 slides a have an indecipherable red stamp, centrally located on the plate and not affecting the images. Content is in good+ to very good condition overall. g+ to vg. Item #44478

* See for example the collection held at Wright State University, which share some common images with this collection.

Price: $3,750.00