On a number of shelves in my apartment, apart from my large collection of Great War material, stacks of random glass stereoviews sit, slowly collecting dust. They’re mostly amateur efforts, generally in the small (45x107mm) format, and of various qualities. Some are clearly taken by a practiced eye, with great composition, printing, stereography, etc – and some aren’t. Some are in great condition given their age – and some aren’t. Some are boxes which focus on a particular place, group of people, theme, etc – and some aren’t.
So I figured – let’s take them off the shelves and have a better look! I don’t have time to spend a half-hour per slide scanning these; I’m just taking 2400 ppi JPEG scans and quickly anaglyphing them. Although my main interest is in Great War stereography, and my peripheral interests tend towards weird subjects and obscure formats, random amateur sets can be a lot of fun. If nothing else, they’re unique records of a place in time – some of which are identified by captions, some not so much. Some are fun to pop in a viewer, and some are just sort of there.
To be fair (and not just pick the best stuff first), I just pulled a box off the top here and went to town. The photographic quality is rather poor, as is the condition, but there are some interesting shots in here nonetheless. If anybody recognizes any of the locations (particularly the two buildings) pictured here, please do drop a comment – because otherwise, I just have the label on the box (“Allemagne 1933-35”) and the name of the plate manufacturer itself (“Eisenberger”) to go on. In any case, enjoy our first Mystery Box!













And that’s about that. Probably, to some family at some point in time, these were a valuable trip down memory lane. Now, they’re curiosities to be enjoyed by people who buy or barter them in strange little 3D communities or on global auction sites. There’s somewhat less of a voyeuristic quality to this set than to some of the found photos I’ve come across, but they’re still interesting for what they are. And now, as always…
Anaglyphs
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