Michael Lehr Antiques
Live Auction

2026 European Photography Auction

Wed, Oct 28, 2026 01:00PM EDT
  2026-10-28 13:00:00 2026-10-28 13:00:00 America/New_York Michael Lehr Michael Lehr : 2026 European Photography Auction https://auction.michaellehrantiques.com/auctions/michael-lehr-antiques/2026-european-photography-auction-24401
Our October auction focuses on historic European photography, we are offering a curated collection of fine and erotic daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, CDV, cabinet cards, stereoviews, and a range of curious and uncommon nineteenth-century European vernacular material. At the center of the sale is a collection of images from the Paris Commune of 1871 and the surrounding “année terrible,” the year of war, siege, insurrection, and reprisal that reshaped France. The focus is on the people who drove those events and lived through their aftermath, and on the city that bore the damage.
Michael Lehr Antiques info@michaellehrantiques.com
Lot 372

Stereoview, Bal Debray and Windmills, Montmartre, Paris

Estimate: $100 - $200
Starting Bid
$10

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$100 $10
$200 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
The Bal Debray and its celebrated windmills on the Butte Montmartre are the subject of this albumen silver stereoview, mounted on the distinctive yellow card of the "Vues pour Stéréoscope" series and dating to the 1860s or 1870s. The Debray family, who acquired the two mills in 1809, made a brown bread galette from freshly milled flour, a product so popular that the site adopted the name Moulin de la Galette. No photographer's imprint is visible on the mount.

The view is taken from street level on a cobblestone road, looking up toward the compound. A low stone wall runs across the foreground, with a gateway bearing a legible sign reading "Graineterie" and a second panel reading "Debray." Two wooden post windmills with fully extended sails rise prominently above the roofline of an adjacent two-story structure with shuttered windows, a viaduct arch visible in the far middle distance. Dense climbing vegetation clings to the wall near the entrance, and a cluster of small posted notices is visible at the gate pillar.

By 1834 the Debray family had opened their property as a dance venue on Sundays and holidays, with festivities held in the courtyard between the windmills and the adjacent buildings. The windmills and the lively social life they anchored attracted painters including Corot, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, and Willette.

The reverse is inscribed in pencil at upper left "Bal Debray / Montmartre" (Bal Debray / Montmartre) and in ink at upper right "Bois de Boulogne" (Bois de Boulogne), with a catalog notation "DBBAAZ 01" in ink at lower right.

Available payment options

  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • Amex
  • Diners
  • Discover
  • JCB
  • Union Pay
PayPal

We ship for free on combined lot values of $500 or higher in the United States. We will be traveling to Paris November 8-14th and can deliver any of our items at Paris Photo or the show on Saturday.