Lestrade and Bruguiere(part II)

[P3D John Bradley <JB3D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Continuing Peter van Zuijlekom's thread
on pooling our information on Lestrade
and Bruguiere...
I haven't noticed the list being swamped
with more information so I'll jot down
what little I know about the Lestrade
operation.
As far as I can tell Lestrade was a later
entrant in to the field. I am not aware of
any 45x107 activity like Bruguiere , and
their first material seems to be card format
viewers and views. =

As Peter notes the company is associated
with Lourdes , the religious site in Southern
France. The company HQ is nearby in Vic
en Bigorre , and is still active. =

Lestrade catalogues from the 60's and 70's
list an enormous choice of viewcards-
probably a thousand or so.Like most other
producers of the time they issued several
risque sets incliding the "Vues Plastique"
series.
 Viewers came in a variety of styles , and
there was a monoprojector manufactured too. =

In addition
Lestrade produce a series of mono 35mm
slides ("Diapositives"), which are mostly
flat versions of their 3D coverage.
I regularly
used to order from Lestrade , but it was always
a painfully slow business. They only appear to
correspond in French , and one had to write
placing an order ; they then responded
saying what was available, and enclosing
an invoice; when you paid this (in Francs
of course) they sent the goods.
Much of what one ordered was not in stock,
largely I think because they never actually
updated their catalogue , just reprinted it,
and many of the cards were sold out.
Nearly all the views were photographed in
the 50's or 60's , and they just dug in to the
old stock when you ordered. I think the
turnover on most of the list was so small
it was not worth their while reprinting when
they ran out. I bought all the English views,
which were a wonderful timewarp- old
cars and British Bobbies in old fashioned
uniforms. If I have a complaint about their
coverage it is that they seemed to avoid
including too may shots of people-
mostly rather sterile scenic views.
At some point in the 1960's Lestrade
took over Bruguiere. Harry zur Kleinsmeid
tells tells me this was a move intended
simply to wipe out the opposition.
In recent years I have found it impossible to
get a response from Lestrade- orders just go
unnotiiced. =

On the positive side they now produce a fine
set of stereoviews of Disneyland Paris, sold
only on site(there will be something about this
in a future edition of Dalia's "Inside 3D"). A
recent posting also reported a similar set
they produce for "Futuroscope".
In Paris I found a few cards and sets still on
sale in tourist shops recently.
Best wishes,
John Bradley
JB3D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


------------------------------