The pedestal of the Colonne Vendôme, Place Vendôme, Paris, fills both frames of this albumen-print stereoview on a yellow card mount, recorded by the publishing house operating at 172, rue de Rivoli under the Ancienne Maison Martinet imprint. The view is shot from ground level and close enough that the shaft of the column itself retreats out of frame, making the massive square base the sole architectural subject. Dating of the image falls most plausibly in the period from 1868 onward, when Alfred Hautecoeur directed the publishing house at 172, rue de Rivoli under the name "Ancienne maison Martinet."

The base is covered across its visible faces with dense spiraling bas-relief bronze panels depicting Napoleonic military campaigns, the figures rendered in vigorous low relief with horses, soldiers, cannon, and allegorical figures legible across the card. A small arched doorway with a door is visible at center, flanked by the relief panels. An iron fence with vertical pickets runs along the perimeter at street level, and the classical Haussmann-era facades of Place Vendôme form an even backdrop across the full width of both frames.

The Vendôme Column was built by Gondoin and Lepère between 1806 and 1811, its spiral bronze relief panels cast from cannon captured from the combined armies of Europe following the victory of Austerlitz. In April 1871, the Paris Commune voted to destroy the column as a symbol of "brutal force and false glory," and on May 16 the monument was sawn at its base and toppled before a crowd. After the fall of the Commune, the new government ordered the column repaired and re-erected, a project completed on December 28, 1875. The base shown here survived that episode intact and is the same structure visible today.

Reverse bears a green oval publisher's stamp reading "ANCne Mon MARTINET / A. HAUTECOEUR / 172, RUE DE RIVOLI"; inscribed in ink at upper center "Colonne Vendôme" (Vendôme Column); additional pencil inscriptions appear at left; inventory notations "2/23/10," "COLDA1," and "Eb" appear in pencil at lower right.