Album with Twenty-Three Albumen Photos of Tashkent, Showing Sobornaya Street, Sheihantaur Mosque, House of General Chernyayev, Shop of Dmitry Zakho, Public Garden, City Streets, Caravanserai, Portraits of Uzbek Dervishes, Araba Drivers, Market Visitors, Families, Children, &c. Ca. 1890s.

Oblong Folio (ca. 25x32,5 cm). 6 card stock leaves. With 23 mounted albumen photos, all ca. 12,5x17 cm (5 x 6 ½ in) and two large images ca. 22x28 cm (8 ¾ x 11 in). Eleven photos with period pencil captions in Russian on the mounts; the first and the last leaves are with later pencil notes in Russian: “1895. Dad’s photos - Tashkent” and “Tashkent.”. Period style green half morocco with cloth boards; all edges coloured. A few photos mildly faded, but overall a very good album with interesting rare early photos.

Historically significant collection of early, original, well-preserved albumen rare studio photos of Tashkent (then the capital of the Syr-Darya Oblast of Russian Turkestan, now the capital of Uzbekistan). Eleven images are supplemented with the photographer’s pencil captions; the first leaf bears a later pencil note “1895. Dad’s photos – Tashkent.” The images were most likely taken to be sold to postcard publishers, as views of Russian Turkestan and portraits of local people were highly popular with the contemporary Russian public. At least four photos from this album were published as postcards by a noted Moscow photogravure firm of “Scherer, Nabholz & Co.” in the early 20th century (See the images from the collection of the Open Central Asian Photo Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4).

The photos show the old city taken from above, a street with the Sheihantaur Mosque on the far right, Sobornaya Street, the house of General Chernyayev (built in 1865, it became the first building in the Russian part of the city), an elegant two-storey building of the shop of a local merchant Dmitry Zakho (on the corner of Sobornaya and Idzharskaya streets), the public garden, a city street in summer and winter, the interior of a caravanserai, ruins of a mosque, &c. Several photos portray the locals – Uzbek araba drivers, market visitors, dervishes at prayer, families and children, &c. Overall an interesting collection of early original photos of Tashkent and its people.

A list of captions (in translation): Dervishes during a prayer, Types of Kirghizes [two different photos], On the araba [carriage with] clover; <…?>; Sheihantaur Mosque; Ruins of the <…?> Mosque; A house of General Chernyayev; Sobornaya Street; Willows in the city garden; [Shop of] D. Zakho.