Stereographoscope, Tabletop

France, 1890s

A beautifully carved, collapsible, wood stereo viewing device with a larger magnifying lens — that’s the graphoscope part — for viewing normal, non-stereo photos. This particular style was called Pantoscope in France. It was introduced in 1890 by Fouquet (one of Mattey’s predecessors) and then manufactured by different companies, including Mattey. Focus can be achieved by sliding the cardholder back and forth but there’s no interocular adjustment to adjust the distance between the lenses. Many stereographoscopes were cheaply made but you can also find some beautifully designed ones. There were also stand-mounted stereographoscopes as well as handheld stereographoscopes. For more information, André Ruiter has an excellent short article on tabletop stereographoscopes.