Photo by David Friend Productions, San Diego, California
TAXIPHOTE "ENGLISH" SIZE (8.5x17cm GLASS SLIDES)
16-007. French, 1st quarter 20th century, manufactured by Jules Richard, with ivorene trade & instruction labels on the front. Made of polished mahogany, 15 1/2" square x 22 1/4" tall, and designed around the use of compact 25-slide trays of the large 8.5 x17cm glass stereo slides. It has a complex mechanical mechanism for placing the individual slides into the field of view and returning them to the tray, an indexing device for selecting the slides in any order, rack & pinion focussing, and one drawer in the base that holds 4 slide trays. This very attractive Taxiphote is in fine overall condition. See pages 172-180 in Paul Wing's "Stereoscopes - The First One Hundred Years" for an extensive discussion of Jules Richard and his multiple view machines. While Taxiphotes designed for the 45 x 107mm and the 6 x 13cm glass slides are relatively common, "English" Size Taxiphotes designed for the large 8.5 x 17cm glass slides are extremely rare, with less than 10 known in collections.
