When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
c. 1860s Adolphe Braun Zurich Switzerland Stereoview Limmat WasserkircheDescription:
Original 19th-century stereoscopic photograph of Zurich, Switzerland, issued by the important French-Alsatian photographer and photographic publisher Adolphe Braun (1812–1877). The card carries the printed vertical credit“A. Braun. à Dornach (Haut-Rhin)”at left and is hand-inscribed“No. 86. Zurich”at right. The paired photographs are albumen prints mounted on Braun’s characteristic decorated stereoscopic card stock.
The scene is identifiable as the historic Zurich waterfront at the upper Limmat, near the river’s emergence from Lake Zurich. TheWasserkircheis seen prominently from the water, with the twin towers of theGrossmünsterrising behind the riverfront buildings. A clock tower is visible across the old city in the distance. The foreground is especially appealing, filled with period small sailing and rowing craft, masts, moored boats, landing structures, and covered boats along the water’s edge.
The view is an unusually evocative record of Zurich before the major late-19th-century rebuilding of the lakefront. The Quaibrücke and the extensive new quay and promenade system were products of the 1880s; this photograph preserves the earlier working waterfront, when the upper Limmat still functioned visibly as a harbor and boat-landing area immediately beside the medieval city.
Braun began producing stereoscopic views of Switzerland in the late 1850s, and institutional collections date closely related Zurich stereographs from his studio to the early and mid-1860s. On the basis of the mount, photographic process, Braun imprint, and surviving comparable views, this example is best datedcirca 1860s. Adolphe Braun’s Swiss and Alpine stereographs were among the most ambitious commercially distributed European landscape photographs of their period and are collected today for their importance to both photographic history and early visual documentation of Switzerland.
A strong early Zurich image for collectors of stereoviews, Swiss photography, Adolphe Braun, architectural history, urban history, river and harbor scenes, Grossmünster and Wasserkirche views, and 19th-century European travel photography.
Condition:
G to mostly VG
Keywords:
Adolphe Braun, A. Braun Dornach, Zurich Switzerland, Zürich, stereoview, stereograph, stereo photograph, albumen photograph, albumen print, circa 1860s, Limmat River, Wasserkirche, Grossmünster, Zurich Old Town, Swiss photography, Switzerland photography, boats, sailing boats, harbor, waterfront, architectural history, urban history, 19th century photography
I am selling my own personal collection of unique postcards, postal history, and ephemera.
Smoke-free and dry-humidity household.
Everything is guaranteed as described.I was previously a long-time seller, and I need to downsize my collections as I am moving overseas for personal reasons.
I will combine shipping costs with other lots.
Many more postcards and items are coming.
