Item #115314 An album of panoramic photographs showing scenes of destruction on the Western Front, mostly taken in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. Western Front.
An album of panoramic photographs showing scenes of destruction on the Western Front, mostly taken in the immediate aftermath of the First World War
An album of panoramic photographs showing scenes of destruction on the Western Front, mostly taken in the immediate aftermath of the First World War
[Western Front]

An album of panoramic photographs showing scenes of destruction on the Western Front, mostly taken in the immediate aftermath of the First World War

Green buckram (193 × 253 mm, stamped in blind 'Kodak | Panorams' [sic]), containing 36 gelatin silver panoramic photographs (between 55 × 170 mm and 60 × 180 mm each), loosely inserted two-to-a-page behind window mounts in specially-designed album leaves; 14 are captioned in pencil at the head of the print (and 7 have a reference number between 67 and 83); many of the earlier photographs, not featuring images of war, are captioned on the verso in ink.

Buckram slightly marked and rubbed; mild silvering-out to some prints; overall, both the album and the photographs are in excellent condition.

The heart of the album consists of 19 striking images of towns between Lens (near Arras) and Maurepas (near Saint Quentin), and the panoramic format of the photographs captures the horrifying extent of artillery damage. The towns (identified in pencil on the images) are Albert, Lens, Peronne, Roye, Villers Carbonnel, Moreuil, Souchez, La Maisonnette, Maurepas, Bouchevesnes, Combles and Hangard, with a further identified view of the Canal du Nord. This area saw some of the heaviest fighting on the Western Front. Particularly noteworthy are three uncaptioned views of the destruction to the centre of Arras, with these panoramas far more evocative than the ubiquitous snapshots. One image, albeit poorly exposed, shows a large homemade sign erected on the ruins of a church: 'Lens Veut Renaître' [Lens Wants To Be Reborn].

Several of the early images in the album are also of interest. One shows a field hospital identified as 'Hôpital de campagne américain', almost certainly one of several run by the American Ambulance Volunteer Field Service, present in France from the beginning of the war. Another shows an establishment at Notre Dame de la Mer, almost certainly the Ecole nationale belge des mutilés de guerre near Port-Villez.

The other photographs are of the French Alps (1913); the baroque Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte near Melun (four items, 1914); a Paris streetscape ('Ce que l'on voyait en Juin 1915 du balcon de la chambre de Maman à Paris'); the Chateau de Brécourt (three items, 1915, including one with two women, captioned 'Emma et Léonie dans la région de ma tranchée'); the Seine at Vernon (two items, 1915); and sepia-toned images of Mont Saint Michel and the shrine at Lourdes.

Item #115314

Price (AUD): $3,500.00