La Messe au Camp Français.

[Mass in the French Camp]. Hand-coloured broadsheet, c.18" x 13½". The Mass of the title is the largest of eleven images showing, mainly humorous, aspects of camp life in what appears, from the onion-topped towers in the background, to be intended to be a Crimean setting. A little browned and with some short splits at the edges, overall in very good condition, the contemporary colour still bright. Fabrique d'Estampes de Gangel à Metz, n.d.

The image from which this item takes its title shows an Officer and his staff taking Mass at an altar in camp. Others show, "Arrivée de plusieurs compatriotes" - a case of wine is opened to great delight; "Pour graisser la marmite" - a wild duck shot to complement rations; "J'ai oublié mon riflard [I forgot my umbrella]" - two drenched soldiers in a rain-storm; "Le cheval du cosaque" - the cossack in question has been unseated by a zouave who is trotting away on his horse; "L'anglais touriste" - the outlandishly dressed tourist, who has not forgotten his umbrella, observes a bombardment through a telescope, a Highlander in the background looks on aghast as a cannon-ball flies past nearby; and, interestingly, an early image of a photographer, simply titled "Le Photographe".

Stock Code: 82233