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[PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE] Advertising brochure No. 206 for Kharkiv camera store run by Anatoly Verner.

Item #1714

Kharkiv: Tsentral’naia tipografiia Dreishpulia, [1909-1910]. 8 pp.: ill. 35x27,5 cm. Tear of spine and some minor tears of edges, otherwise mint.

In Russian. Extremely rare pre-revolutionary ad. It is a well-illustrated brochure promoting an enterprise owned by Anatoly Feliksovich Verner (?-1910), a professional photographer, a member of the Imperial Kharkiv Russian Technical Society and an owner of a store selling photographic equipment. Anatoly Verner was a nobleman who had arrived in Kharkiv in the early 20th century. In a warehouse store on the street Moscovskaya, 4, he embarked on selling cameras and accessories, magic lanterns, stereoscopes, gramophones, telephones, bells, etc. Verner launched a vigorous activity in development of Kharkiv photography. Thanks to his initiative, the Kharkiv branch of the Imperial Russian Technical Society, the Imperial Kharkiv University, Technological and Veterinary Institutes received contemporary technical innovations, consumables and manuals from abroad. Verner was the first in Kharkiv to take pictures for stereoscopes and to produce color photographs using an autochrome method. He took part in photographic exhibitions in Kharkiv and Yekaterinoslav and also published two issues of a magazine ‘Photographer’ in 1910. In November 1910, Verner committed suicide and later his company was run by O. Vishnyakova.

The brochure vividly describes relevance of photography skills for people of various occupations. The edition shows a doctor capturing a surgical procedure, a military officer capturing maneuvers, farmers taking pictures of livestock and vegetables, also an engineer, an architect, a draftsman, a craftsman. It states that a camera might be a nice and useful gift for schoolchildren as well. According to this brochure, Verner offered various cameras, including some manufactured under his own AVE label.

Status: On Hold