A bake­lite tray con­tain­ing 25 glass slides can be insert­ed by flip­ping down the front of the view­er. Then, by turn­ing a crank on the right side of the hous­ing, one slide after anoth­er can be exam­ined. One turn to lift the slide and anoth­er turn to move it towards the ocu­lars. The mag­ni­fi­ca­tion qual­i­ty and hence the view­ing expe­ri­ence rep­re­sents the top of all Tax­iphote models.
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 while the cen­tre knob is pressed. Pulling a met­al chain on the left brings a mir­ror into posi­tion allow­ing the slide title to be read through the right ocular.
The lit­tle leathered case labelled ‘Trousse de Tax­iphote’ has moulds for three pairs of exchange lens­es for dif­fer­ent view­ing pur­pos­es. Except the main short focus lens pair, there’s one long focus pair turn­ing back the ‘Mod­èle mécanique’ into an ordi­nary mod­el, and a prism lens pair turn­ing the image upside down. These ‘Redresseurs’ were intend­ed to view non trans­posed Autochrome colour slides and were patent­ed in 1911.
Hav­ing togeth­er the view­er, the lens sets in their case and the extra­or­di­nary table, this ensem­ble is very rare and in excel­lent condition.
In-depth infor­ma­tion on the Tax­iphote can be found here: Le Tax­iphote — the most famous French stereo viewer