1-154-343 - Art Media-Private Collection/Heritage Images

'Les Petits Marchands d'Obus', Siege of Paris, Franco-Prussian War, January 1871 (1872). Poor children trying to make money by selling pieces of shrapnel. After the disastrous defeat of the French at Sedan and the capture of Napoleon III, the Prussians surrounded Paris on 9 September 1870. The city held out despite famine, disease and cold until a bombardment with heavy siege guns led to its surrender on 28 January 1871. From a private collection.