During the brief period in which the Communards controlled Paris, they dismantled the imperial column in the Place Vendôme, and this albumen stereoview captures the column standing moments before that act, its tall spiral shaft still crowned with its figure of Napoleon, the surrounding square already rigged with the heavy cables and timber scaffolding that would bring it down. The orange-bordered card mount is printed in red with "Paris 1870 1871" on both flanking panels, placing the image within a commercial series documenting the siege and Commune period. No photographer's imprint appears on the mount.

The column dominates the frame, rising above the uniform stone facades of the Place Vendôme arcade behind it. Large wooden cradles and angled support beams brace the base of the shaft, and the tensioned cables extend outward toward anchoring points beyond the frame. A cart or flat wagon rests at the foot of the column, and several figures are visible in the lower foreground, dwarfed by the scale of the structure. The square appears largely cleared, and the composition is symmetrical and deliberate, consistent with a photographer who positioned himself well in advance of the event.

Gustave Courbet had urged the demolition of the column as early as September 1870, arguing it was a symbol of Bonapartism, and on 12 April 1871 the Commune authorized its destruction, which was carried out on 16 May. Barely two years later, in 1873, an identical copy was reconstructed and still stands in the square today. Photographs taken in the moments before the toppling are among the most historically significant images of the Commune period, as the visible rigging apparatus documents the engineering of the demolition in real time.

Printed caption on the card face reads: "23., Colonne de la Place Vendôme, un instant avant sa chute" (Column of the Place Vendôme, an instant before its fall). Inscribed in pencil on the reverse: "During the Commune. / The Column of Napoleon. in the / Place Vendome. just before its fall." Upper right corner of the reverse also bears the initials "W.H.R." and the numeral "25."