During the Victorian and Edwardian eras, it was the ambition of many bourgeois households in Malta and throughout the civilised world to own a stereoscope and a sizeable stack of 3D cards to view through it. 

HMS Neptune in Grand Harbour. Victorian stereo card

The fashion only abated before World War I, though some aficionados still practise stereoscopic photography to this day. Stereoscopy was anything but a gimmick.

A camera with two lenses set at slightly different angles captured two marginally different scenes that were then viewed together through a stereoscope.

As if miraculously, the two flat images sprung simultaneously to life in a perfect three-dimensional illusion. 

Fort St Angelo and sailing vessels. Hand-tinted French stereo card

These twin images flooded European and American markets.

They covered everything, from landscapes to events, family groups, interiors and landmarks, right up to the lewdest porn.

Hand-coloured Malta stereo card of ladies in a public garden. Unidentified publisher.

Victorian stereo cards of Malta abound but have hardly received in-depth study so far.

Publishers identified themselves by name on many of them, even though quite a number show no signs of authorship.

St Anne Square, Floriana, with roadworks on the right-hand side

Panorama of the Portes des Bombes and Ħamrun areas published by the Strasbourg firm Stereoscop R. Manrique.

An Underwood Malta stereo card of Strada Reale

We know that some professional photographers in Malta, like Leandro Preziosi, owned stereo cameras but, so far, not one single Malta scene can safely be attributed to a local camera artist.

Many of the leading international publishing houses, like Underwood, Keystone, Sommer and several others, included Malta in their repertoire.

Fishermen with their catch in St Julian’s. Publisher not identified

Giorgio Sommer, born 1834, the gifted and prolific German stereo photographer who established himself in Naples, must have found Malta scenes commercially attractive.

He is believed to have visited Malta in 1860 and, again, in 1865.

Sliema scene with donkey cart. Turn-of-the-century stereoscopic card

I have traced some 30 Malta stereos by him.

Differently from others whose works mostly show stark lifeless panoramas, Sommer’s often distinguish themselves by touches of “humble humanity”: workmen coaling steamships, goats roaming through genteel Sliema, flower markets or fishermen with their catch.

All photos from the author's collection

Stereo card of Old Theatre Street, Valletta, and the previous Carmelite church, issued by H.C. White & Co. of Chicago, the US.