Germany, Heer. A Private Pre-War Photo Album, c. 1939

(Heer Fotoalbum). Constructed of a card stock binding, the exterior featuring a textured dark brown faux leather liner, the spine perforated with four eyelets reinforced with magnetic metal grommets through which is looped a drawstring which maintains the album’s structural integrity, the cover bearing a silvered Stahlhelm and inscription of “MEINE DIENSTZEIT” (“MY SERVICE TIME”), the interior content consisting of 24 black card stock pages pasted with 170 images, including private photos captured by the owner and comrades, opening with family and tourist photos dated 1937-1939, before transitioning to depictions of the owner in a Heer uniform training and at leisure in the spring of 1939, followed by studio portraits of further field-captured image of Heer personnel in barracks during the summer of 1939, concluding with photos of soldiers assembled for review and on parade, most featuring handwritten dates but without details captions, with the images supplemented by a small number of postcards, measuring 24.5 cm (w) x 19 cm (h), an interesting account of Wehrmacht life on the eve of the Second World War in extremely fine condition.