The Ives Kromskop
March 19, 2023

The Ives Kromskop

One of the most remark­able stere­o­scopes ever pro­duced com­mer­cial­ly was the Ives Krom­skop (Patent #531,040, Dec 18, 1894). In it, three stereo­scop­ic glass pos­i­tives made from neg­a­tives exposed through red, green, and blue fil­ters are opti­cal­ly super­im­posed to give a full col­or image of remark­able qual­i­ty. It was more than ten years pri­or to the intro­duc­tion of rel­a­tive­ly crude full col­or plates such as the Autochrome.

Collecting, History, Stereoscopes, Stereoviews
The birth of Stereoscopy: Wheatstone on Binocular Vision 1838, original source
June 21, 2022

The birth of Stereoscopy: Wheatstone on Binocular Vision 1838, original source

Back in 1838 the con­cept of binoc­u­lar vision had not yet been explored or writ­ten about any­where. It was a sci­en­tist in his mid 30s who not only described the phe­nom­e­non lat­er called stere­op­sis but also con­struct­ed a device to view two flat images in 3D which he called a stere­o­scope. This is espe­cial­ly remark­able as pho­tog­ra­phy was not invent­ed until one year lat­er. Charles Wheat­stone’s obser­va­tions were based only on draw­ings. Most of these draw­ings are based on hor­i­zon­tal mir­ror­ing which is why we call them mir­ror stere­os today. Read Wheat­stone’s orig­i­nal source here.

Collecting, History, Stereoscopes, Stereoviews
A Restorer’s Journey
October 8, 2021

A Restorer’s Journey

Some­times you will get a glimpse of the indi­vid­ual his­to­ry of your trea­sure and know where it was stored, wether it was looked after or long for­got­ten, if the own­er was well sit­u­at­ed or not, etc. For me, these sto­ries are invalu­able. As a pas­sion­ate restor­er, I espe­cial­ly appre­ci­ate view­ers that have remained untouched since their last use. I care­ful­ly remove the dust of decades to reveal the orig­i­nal beau­ty of a stere­o­scope. Being the first one to do so feels almost like get­ting in touch with those who bought it a cen­tu­ry ago. I want to take you to one of those journeys.

Collecting, History, Stereoscopes
Le Taxiphote — the most famous French stereo viewer
May 2, 2021

Le Taxiphote — the most famous French stereo viewer

The Veras­cope and the Tax­iphote are two halves of an unbe­liev­able stereo devel­op­ment effort that went on for 40 years essen­tial­ly with­out any changes. The Tax­iphote was export­ed to and patent­ed in many coun­tries. All this serves as an exam­ple of how attrac­tive stere­oscopy was at that time, and also con­firms the qual­i­ty of the Tax­iphotes as a tech­ni­cal device. We can only guess at the pres­tige of hav­ing a Tax­iphote at that time. 

Collecting, History, Stereoscopes
Mid-Century 35 mm Filmstrip Stereo Viewers
November 5, 2020

Mid-Century 35 mm Filmstrip Stereo Viewers

3D film­strip view­ers are a fam­i­ly of stereo view­ers that gained promi­nence in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry. In fact, it was a small film­strip view­er called Tru-Vue that re-intro­duced 3D view­ing as a mid-cen­tu­ry pas­time, made it more afford­able than ear­li­er stere­o­scope sets, and paved the way in the hearts and minds of con­sumers for the pop­u­lar 3D reel & card view­ers that would come lat­er. For this rea­son, Tru-Vue has often been called “the miss­ing link” in stere­oscopy. Explore some of the most inter­est­ing film­strip stereo view­ers here.

Collecting, History, Stereoscopes
Restoring Stereoscopic Antiques
November 1, 2020

Restoring Stereoscopic Antiques

When con­sid­er­ing restora­tion, I always ask myself one very sim­ple ques­tion: What would this stere­o­scope look like today if it had nev­er dis­ap­peared from its own­er’s liv­ing room, but had been cher­ished and cared for con­tin­u­ous­ly for over 100 years?

Collecting, Stereoscopes
Collecting Stereoscopes
September 7, 2020

Collecting Stereoscopes

In this post, I will talk about col­lect­ing antique stere­o­scopes for glass stere­oviews from the peri­od 1850 to 1930. Some tips from my pre­vi­ous post can also be applied to stere­o­scopes, so I rec­om­mend to read this post first. How­ev­er, col­lect­ing stere­o­scopes comes with some addi­tion­al chal­lenges that I will address now.

Collecting, Stereoscopes
A Multiview Stereoscope Comparison
August 27, 2020

A Multiview Stereoscope Comparison

Mul­ti­view stere­o­scopes are table stere­o­scopes that are capa­ble of show­ing mul­ti­ple images in one view­ing ses­sion. These view­ers use a slide tray or chain in which the stere­oviews are placed. By turn­ing a crank or push­ing down a lever, the images are dis­played one by one. 

Collecting, Stereoscopes