The stereo pair shows a group of French military wagons standing on open ground near a railway building, most prominently one lettered in stenciled French text identifying it as belonging to a regimental supply train. Stacked rifles and dismantled harness equipment lie scattered around the wheels of the wagons, with a tower-topped station building and hazy hills visible in the background. A wooden fence or rail crosses the foreground, separating the viewer from the abandoned equipment.
The printed caption on the mount identifies the scene as captured wagons at the Weissenburg railway station, issued as plate 25 in a series published by Sophus Williams (successor to E. Linde & Co.) of Berlin, a firm active in distributing topographical and war-related stereoviews in the years following the Franco-Prussian War.
Photographer/publisher: Sophus Williams (E. Linde & Co.), Berlin
Period/date: circa 1870
Dimensions: 175 x 85 mm
Condition: Good; sepia-toned albumen prints with even overall tonality, mount showing light overall yellowing and scattered foxing spots to the verso, small chip to the lower left edge of the mount, corners otherwise intact and stable.
Reverse: Printed label reading: '25. Erbeutete Wagen am Bahnhof Weissenburg. Verlag v. Sophus Williams (E. Lindo & Co.) Berlin.' Handwritten inscription in green ink at lower left: 'D.L. de Haas.' Front mount bears a manuscript number '25' in ink at upper right.
Keywords: Franco-Prussian War, Weissenburg, military wagons, stereoview, Sophus Williams
Photographer Biography:
Sophus Williams, born Sophus Vilhelm Schou in Copenhagen in 1835, was a Danish-born photographer and publisher active in Berlin.
He took over the established art and photography firm E. Linde & Co. on Leipziger Strasse in Berlin around 1869.
His publishing house issued extensive stereoview, carte-de-visite, and cabinet card series covering European sights and contemporary events, including scenes from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
He remained active as a Berlin photo-publisher until his death in 1900.
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