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[MOSCOW & NIZHNY NOVGOROD ON PHOTOS OF 1871] [Album of Twenty Early Original Albumen Photographs, showing Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod (1), Titled:] Moskva. Avgust 1871 goda [Moscow, August 1871]

Item #1200

1871. Oblong Folio (ca. 28x34,5 cm). 21 thick stock album leaves. With 20 mounted albumen prints, including twelve large images ca. 19x25 cm (7 1/2 x 9 ¾ in), the rest are ca. 12x16 cm (4 ½ x 6 ½ in). All but two captioned in English or French in black ink on the mounts, seven photos hand coloured. Period brown full morocco album with large gilt lettered title in Russian on the front board; moiré endpapers, all edges gilt; remains of a brass clasp on the front board. Album rubbed on extremities, weak on hinges, spine with a minor tear on top, minor spotting to first and last leaves, several photos with occasional light foxing, but overall a very good album.

Attractive custom-made photo album with twenty original studio photos of Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, collected during a visit to Moscow in August 1871. Among the photos are large hand coloured views of the Grand Kremlin Palace, the Tsar Bell, a panorama of Moscow taken from the top of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower (showing the Cathedral of Christ of the Savior, consecrated in 1883), Saint Basil’s Cathedral, close-up view of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour with the Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge in the foreground; Russian telega or horse-driven cart, and a portrait of a “Moscow friend” (“muzhik”, or peasant). Other photos include portraits of Emperor Alexander II and his wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna; four views of the Kremlin and the Red Square: Spasskaya Tower, St. Catherine Church of Ascension Convent (demolished by the Soviet authorities in 1929), monument to Minin and Pozharsky, a view of the Kremlin taken from the Moscow River embankment; and six photos of other Moscow sites: Sukharev Tower on the modern-day Sadovoye Ring road (demolished in 1934), Bolshoi Theatre; a view of the Moscow River, the Orphanage and Zamoskvorechye district, taken from the Kremlin; church of Holy Trinity in Ostankino; Red Gate triumphal arch (demolished in 1927); and Petrovsky Palace (then on the outskirts of Moscow, now within the city border). There is also a nice view of the territory of the famous Fair in Nizhny Novgorod, showing the fair pavilions (the one on the right has a sign indicating that it belongs to the well-known Russian merchant Savva Morozov), the Transfiguration or old-fair Cathedral, and the bridge over the Oka River. Overall an interesting collection of large early photos of Moscow, with an attractive view of the Nizhny Novgorod fair grounds.

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