I've got a couple of these, but I don't know too much about them. Also included is about 250 late 19thC early 20thC stereoviews but i'll likely make a separate thread for those. Any info appreciated. This is the first stereopticon, its pretty nice and has a felt rim around the viewing area so that its soft on your face. This one reads: PAT'D.APR.12'04. or something like that. I'm guessing it was patented 1904, but not necessarily manufactured then. This is the 2nd stereoopticon, its in pretty rough shape. the handle came off who knows when, the wire holders are pretty bad, the wooden blinder thing is very loose and pulls out of the 1 remaining screw its attached to easily, and swivels all over the place. The finish on the viewing piece seems like its wood colored vinyl or something and its peeling off the wood and is extremely stiff and brittle.
with 250 cards you'll have hours of fun, watching history unfold in front of your your eyes. If you're lucky , some of the cards will have a higher value due to their subject matter, while most others , less so. the viewers are available for sale on the net, with the one in great condition having the higher value. They are easy to search for. If selling the cards....bundle them according to subject matter.
Yeah I've been having a lot of fun looking at a lot of them, and its extremely cool to see a lot of this stuff, especially seeing a 3D version of the brooklyn bridge in the early 1900's, so cool. Thx for the advice on how to group them together, i was originally going to try to bundle them by publisher or series if applicable, but was going to ignore subject matter. as a lot of them are marked, but not all. A lot of the cards are tied to Vermont, and Montpelier in particular I think. Some of the cards are part of a series, so I suspect keeping those ones together is probably a good idea, although maybe some of those have a more interesting subject than other cards in the same series and should be singled out, maybe?
That'll take a little research...but yes. Certain landmarks....may have been produced for tourists by the thousands...so their value would be low........
You can get replacement parts fairly easily, such as the wire holder. There were several major makers, Keystone was one of the more common...but the replacement parts are new and pretty interchangeable.
I have an old viewer, too, and like to use it so have managed to keep adding to a collection of cards. Have fun! Mine are arranged sort of by topic, or by image type (outdoor scenes, portraits, joke cards, etc.). A lot of mine are of people but there are some scenes also. Sorting by publisher is also a great idea, especially if you want to collect certain sets.
I have one of these stereoviewers and some cards stashed somewhere in my hoard. I really like them and see them occasionally at estate auctions but they are not as commonplace as they used to be. They don't sell quite as well as they did a decade ago but some of the cards can be valuable if the subject matter is good. My grandfather who was a collector and occasional flea market dealer had tons of cards and half dozen viewers in his hoard. I enjoyed looking at the cards through them growing up as a teen.
