A preview of 10 highlights from the Honorat Collection, consisting of nearly 200 examples of amateur French stereography of the Great War.
Highlights from the Honorat Negatives (dans la région de VERDUN)
Remembrance Day 2021: Colonials, Hospitals & Command by Cl. Gueidan
This year's Remembrance Day post focuses on the work of Cl. Gueidan, a stereographer who sold some of his non-stereo work to the Section photographique de l'armée. He had incredible access to High Command, but also focused on Marsouins (colonial marines), hospitals, and ruins, creating some incredible works in the process.
One-shot #31: La Stéréoscopie Universelle (LSU)’s SDV division really steps in it…
Bad puns aside, LSU really screwed the pooch on a 45x107mm glass plate stereoview - not only did they print the image horizontally reversed, but they managed to rotate the right-hand frame of the stereo pair by 180º. In this post, we explore the printing process that must have been employed by LSU in making an extremely goofy glass plate.
30 Boxes of Glass Plates from Belgium: Marie-Noëlle’s Collection, Intro & 2 Boxes
One of the parcels which arrived on "Christmas in July" two days ago contained a wooden box - with about 500 amateur glass stereoviews contained within. Today, we take a look at two boxes at random, in an attempt to determine what this acquisition consists of, who might have taken it, and whether it is, indeed, a cohesive collection, as opposed to a random pile of amateur glass.
Mystery Box #1: Winter in Germany, mid-1930s
In an attempt to start sorting through some of the piles of random amateur glass stereoviews in my collection, I picked one at random. It appears to be a family at wintertime, somewhere in Germany, in the early- or mid-1930s.
One-shot #28: Camouflaged English batteries (LSU no. 9198)
Sometimes, whilst one is sorting through a newly acquired collection, a new slide or card proves just captivating - and one winds up just admiring it through their favorite stereoscope for minutes on end. This was one from my latest acquisition which had this effect on me.
Cave Series: Bruguiere’s “Grotte de Courniou” (The Glass Spinner’s Palace)
The Grotte de la Devèze in Courniou, France, known in English as the The Glass Spinner's Palace, was photographed and released by Bruguiere in the late 1940s - near the end of the era of glass-plate diapositives. I obtained a near-pristine copy the other day and thought I'd share.
Ruins Tourism and the Ghoul of Soissons
While touring the ruins after the Great War was rather unexceptional, this well-shot amateur set is rather bizarre in that a lone woman is pictured in most of the shots, always with a stolid expression on her face and in a very proper stance. Add in a complete lack of other people, she comes off as rather ghoulish, like a spectre haunting the rubble.
Something Happening in Boissise-la-Bertrand, 1911
With most sets of stereographic images, you can get a sense of what's going on from the captions, action, provenance - all sorts of things. Here, I'm more or less at a loss - but the stereoviews are pretty darn cool!
Carnaval de Nice 1933
In the spirit of the holiday season, I present the Carnaval de Nice from 1933, from a fantastic set of glass positive slides in my collection. I hope that these pictures of joy, jubilation, and celebration will bring happiness to my readers, regardless of which (if any) holidays they are celebrating around this time of year - and that they will transform these feelings into kindnesses towards others. Because that's truly in the spirit of any joyous celebration, is it not?