This object is a copper photogravure plate engraved by Edouard Baldus. It has been steel faced and the steel facing is partially removed or worn away. On close examination, the plate shows evidence of Baldus’ handwork. The plate was used for printing Reconstruction de l’Hôtel de Ville de Paris.

Baldus’s last known photographic publication much in the same vein as his Louvre and Versailles volumes—a collection of one hundred photogravures of the architecture and sculptural decoration of the new Hotel de Ville of Paris, completed in 1884 to replace the building destroyed by fire a decade. Although similar in content and style to his earlier work at the Louvre, more photographs of the architecture per se are included.

Baldus declared bankruptcy in 1897 and died two years later.