Record Details

Name/TitleTray-Stere­o­scope ‘Le Tax­iphote no. 2, style Louis XVI’, Luxe

About this objectA bake­lite tray con­tain­ing 25 glass slides can be insert­ed by flip­ping down the front of the view­er. Then, by depress­ing the lever on the right side of the hous­ing, one slide after anoth­er can be exam­ined. On the left side of the view­er, there is a counter which indi­cates the num­ber of the slide and allows nav­i­ga­tion to a spe­cif­ic slide.
In-depth infor­ma­tion on the Tax­iphote can be found here: Le Tax­iphote — the most famous French stereo viewer

Place MadeFrance

Mak­erRichard, Jules

Mak­er RoleMan­u­fac­tur­er

Mak­erColardeau, Louis

Mak­er RoleDesign­er

Mak­erLech­n­er & Müller

Mak­er RolePublisher/Seller

Date Made1904–1905

Series TitleTax­iphote

Tech­niqueMul­ti-view, tray-based

Tech­niqueFocus, lens tubes

Peri­od1893–1939

Sub­ject and Asso­ci­a­tion Descrip­tionShort­ly after the suc­cess of the ‘Véras­cope’ stereo­scop­ic cam­era, Jules Richard and his engi­neer Louis Colardeau patent­ed the first mod­el as ‘Stéréo-Classeur’ in 1899 and start­ed pro­duc­tion in the same year. It was renamed as ‘Le Tax­iphote’ in 1900. The 8.5x17cm ‘Le Tax­iphote No. 2’ was first men­tioned in 1903, van­ished from the cat­a­logue in 1930 and is hard to find today. The view­er illus­trat­ed was pro­duced in 1904 or 1905 accord­ing to its ser­i­al number.
All mod­els were avail­able in two stan­dard ver­sions, one in waxed wal­nut and one in pol­ished mahogany. The view­er illus­trat­ed is a deluxe, spe­cial edi­tion mod­el which has addi­tion­al molds and orna­ments and was list­ed in the cat­a­logue under ‘Style Louis XVI’. These are rare, very sought after and demand a much high­er price than the stan­dard models.
More­over, this view­er was export­ed and sold in Vien­na by Lech­n­er & Müller, which gives it a spe­cial his­tor­i­cal relevance.

For­mat8.5x17cm

Object TypeStere­o­scope

Sub­ject and Asso­ci­a­tion Key­wordsFR 3503 (L. Colardeau, J. Richard, 1899)

Sub­ject and Asso­ci­a­tion Key­wordsFR 293459 (J. Richard, 1904)

Medi­um and Mate­ri­alsGlass Slides

Object num­berM‑ST064

Copy­right LicenceAll rights reserved