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Used antique condition. Wood, metal and velvet/fabric components show wear, scratches, scuffs, discoloration and age-related finish wear. Metal hardware shows tarnish and oxidation. Hood edge trim is worn and frayed in areas. Both lenses are present. Sliding card holder and folding handle move. Optical performance has not been tested.
Antique Underwood & Underwood “Sun Sculpture” stereoscope viewer, manufactured in New York and dating to the early 20th century.
This Holmes-type stereoscope was designed for viewing stereographic photograph cards, presenting the paired images through two lenses to create a three-dimensional effect. It has a wood body and sliding stereograph holder, folding wood handle, twin square lenses, and an aluminum viewing hood with decorative embossed floral designs and fabric-covered edge.
The front of the hood is marked:
“Sun Sculpture
U&U
Trade Mark”
The metal mounting plate is marked:
“Man’f’d by
Underwood & Underwood
New York
Patented June 11, 1901
Foreign Patents
Applied For.”
The adjustable card holder retains its two wire card supports. The folding handle and sliding holder operate, and both viewing lenses are present. Optical performance has not been tested.
Underwood & Underwood was a major producer and publisher of stereoscopic photography around the turn of the 20th century. Museum collections identify this particular patented Sun Sculpture configuration as an early-1900s Holmes-type stereoscope; comparable examples are dated approximately 1901–1910.
No stereograph cards are included.
