Short­ly after the suc­cess of the ‘Véras­cope’ stereo­scop­ic cam­era, Jules Richard and his engi­neer Louis Colardeau patent­ed the ‘Stéréo-Classeur’ in 1899 and start­ed pro­duc­tion in the same year. Though, it was only poor­ly adver­tised in the com­pa­ny’s cat­a­logue. This would change one year lat­er, when it was renamed as ‘Le Taxiphote’.
The ‘Stéréo-Classeur’ was 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 been fin­ished in “Thuya” burl wood. These are rare, very sought after and demand a much high­er price than the stan­dard mod­els. Due to the name change in 1900, it can be clear­ly dat­ed to 1899.