STEREOSCOPE & 200 WW1 PLATES

Rare complete stereoscopy set dating from the early 20th century, comprising a portable stereoscope in varnished wood with its original lenses and ten uniform boxes totaling approximately two hundred glass stereoscopic plates. Published by Rolland – La Stéréoscopie Universelle (Guilleminot, Paris), these views immerse the viewer in the heart of the First World War.

This optical device from the early 20th century offers, when viewed through, a striking experience: the paired images merge into a single scene, creating an almost unsettling impression of relief and depth, as if one were truly present.

The plates gathered here present views of the First World War among the most powerful ever produced. One discovers the trenches, the battlefields, the devastated landscapes… but also, and above all, rows of corpses, bodies abandoned in the mud, victims piled up on quays or at the edge of mass graves. The three-dimensional vision intensifies the rawness of these images: the dead soldiers appear almost within reach, and the viewer feels the full shock of this direct confrontation with the brutal reality of the conflict.

A rare ensemble, combining scientific object and historical testimony, this stereoscope and its views offer an experience that is at once disturbing, poignant, and fascinating, worthy of the most authentic cabinets of curiosities.