Lot of 88 miscellany stereograph cards from the Perfect Stereograph & the Imperial series

Cards: 86x178 mm. Slipcase: 195x150 mm. Lot of 88 stereographs on black cards depicting international monuments, museums, squares, bridges, royal palaces and events, theatres, landscapes and everyday noble life. Each card contains two similar black and white pictures, brief printing data on the margins of the front of the cards and on the back of the cards a short informative description of the pictures in six different languages. Half cloth slipcase in book form with lettered title and ornaments on the spines (slightly rubbed and stained). Very well preserved.
A stereograph is a card with two similar images on it. When viewed through a set of lenses, the images create an optical illusion that gives the impression of a single, three-dimensional image. The earliest stereograph was invented before the advent of photography by Sir Charles Wheatstone, using illustrations. After being exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition in London, the stereograph grew in popularity and spread internationally becoming the first ever mass-produced photographic images sold and a precursor to the motion picture phenomena. Stereographs were collected by many middle-class families in the late 19th century. People acquired stereographs of tourist sites they had visited, as well as exotic locales that they would only experience through the wonder of the stereoscope, but they were also used as an education tool in classrooms.
Hawley C. White was an American photographer, publisher and inventor. He started his career in New York City in 1870, establishing a business for grinding spectacle lenses. In 1874, he moved to North Bennington and set up a small factory to produce stereoscopes. He then founded the H. C. White Co. and through the 1920s was one of the most prominent manufacturers of high-quality stereograph cards and his instruments and stereoscopes soon were recognized as the best on the market. His catalogue exceeded 13,000 items, whit good world-wide coverage. He covered about 40 boxed sets, some of 100 views, some of smaller assortments. In 1915 White, faced with the general decline in popularity of stereoviews, decided to close the factory and retire. The Keystone View Company bought the stock of negatives and made it a key part of their expanding collection of images.
Ann Vibeke Knudsen, History of world photography, online; Oregon State University, Early Photographic Formats and Processes in the Special Collections and Archives Research Center. Stereographs (1850 to 1900s), Oregon, 2025; Bennington Museum, H. C. White Co.