Maps 5.d.9

Red quarter-leather and buckram volume (British Museum binding) measuring 410 x 360 mm, containing 88 prints mounted one to a page (recto only), with contemporary handwritten caption beneath each image; binding worn, with upper board detached. The blue card leaves are uniformly printed with the general title ‘Paris, 1871’ at the top, the prints mounted within red rules. At the bottom of each leaf is printed the photographer's credit ‘Ad. Braun à Dornach (Haut-Rhin)’ and ‘Procédé inaltérable’ (Permanent process): despite this legend, only two of the prints are permanent carbon prints, the remaining being albumen prints, all showing fading to a greater or lesser extent. The photographs present a detailed record of some of the most important buildings destroyed by the Communards, after the defeat of the French in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. These include the Tuileries Palace, the Louvre, the Palais Royal, the Ministry of Finance, the Hôtel de Ville, the Caisse de Dépôts et Consignations, the Cour des Comptes, Auteuil railway station, the palace of the Légion d'honneur, the Villette Docks, the Grenier d'Abondance and, outside the city centre, the chateaux of Saint-Cloud and Meudon.