The base of the Vendôme Column fills the foreground of this albumen stereoview, published by Adolphe Block of Paris as part of his "Ruines de Paris et Environs" series. The image documents the aftermath of one of the most dramatic acts of the Paris Commune: on May 16, 1871, Communards pulled down the Vendôme Column from its great stone pedestal, leaving the massive decorated base standing in the Place Vendôme. Adolphe Block was a studio photographer who became, from 1863 onward, a prolific publisher of stereoscopic views, signing his work with the letters B.K.

The pedestal is photographed at close range, its broad bronze bas-relief panels clearly legible, depicting military processional scenes in multiple registers. An iron fence surrounds the base, and rubble is visible piled at the fence line. Tall Haussmann-era facades of the Place Vendôme fill the background, their mansard rooflines and dormer windows intact above the scene of destruction. A wooden door is visible at the base of the plinth, and ladders lean against the masonry in at least one of the paired views.

The Vendôme Column was a monument erected in 1810 by Napoleon I in the Place Vendôme to celebrate his army's victory at Austerlitz. Modeled on Trajan's Column in Rome, its 425 bronze bas-relief panels spiraling up the shaft were made from captured cannon. Six days after the column was toppled, the Assemblée de Versailles ordered it rebuilt, and by 1873 an identical copy had been reconstructed. Views documenting the ruined base in the immediate aftermath are scarce primary records of this brief window in Parisian history.

Inscribed in ink on the lower mount recto: "Colume Vendome. Paris." (Vendôme Column, Paris); printed in red on the left mount border: "Ruines de Paris et Environs" (Ruins of Paris and Its Surroundings); printed in red on the right mount border: "A. Block Editeur, Paris." The reverse is inscribed in ink at upper left: "Colonne Vendome" (Vendôme Column); an additional notation appears at lower right in cursive, partially legible as "Julien" or similar.