Souvenir Moscou by Daziaro Joseph (1 results)

Condition: Very good. Album with 20 silver gelatin photographs, n. d. (ca 1880); oblong 4 1/2 x 6 1/4; textured, brown paper over boards and 1/4 cloth, embossed title in gilt, ruled with an elaborate border and foliate decorations in black; prints attached to each other with strips of paper, leporello-style, and folded into the album; captions in Russian, with neat manuscript translations in English below; occasional creases to margins of photos; the last three of them with minor rust spotting to edge from a removed paper clip; in very good condition. Album with a bit of rubbing to edges and a thin, discolored band to bottom margin; overal in about very good condition.The firm of J. Daziaro, Russia's first private publishing house of printed art graphics, traced its roots to Italy and publisher and seller of prints Giuseppe Daziaro (1796-1865), known in Russia as Iosif Khristoforovich Datsiaro, who had travelled extensively through Eastern Europe in the early 19th century, before deciding to set up his own business in Moscow in 1827. He also briefly operated a lithographic workshop, but eventually closed it down, as it was more profitable to acquire printed materials from other companies. His younger brother Giacomo joined him in 1838 and the business grew tremendously, opening additional shops in St. Petersburg, Warsaw, and Paris by the 1850s. After Giuseppe passed away, Giacomo returned to Italy and management of the Moscow shop went to Giuseppe's eldest son of the same name (1831-1892). It was under Giuseppe Jr., when the firm also began creating and selling photographs, which included views of cities and landmarks and portraits of famous people. Very-highly regarded, Daziaro's photos and shop were one of Leo Tolstoy's favorite establishments. The business ceased to exist after the October Revolution.The current album (featuring a bigger-than-usual number of images, as most Daziaro albums infrequently appearing on the market usually contain 12-18 photographs), highlighted famous landmarks of Moscow, while also often showing people, carriages, etc. in front of the former, and included the Imperial Palace, the Red Square, The Tsar Bell (Kolokol), Bolshoi Theatre, and so on.