[IMPERIAL RUSSIA] Group of 30 Phototype Postcards of Kyiv, Ukraine, 1905

Item #1665

Kyiv [Kiev], 1905. Group of 30 photographic and phototype postcards, comprising 29 views of Kyiv and one ethnographic postcard depicting two women in traditional Ukrainian dress. Approximately 9 × 14 cm each. Captions principally in Russian and French, with occasional German annotations. Various publishers, including photographer A. Markov (Kyiv) and Scherer, Nabholz & Co. (Moscow). All postcards are in very good condition.

A collection of early-twentieth-century postcards documenting Kyiv during the final decades of the Russian Empire. The 29 city views encompass a broad range of urban, architectural, commercial, religious, and landscape subjects, including the Jewish (Galician) Bazaar, Contract Fair (Kontraktova yarmarka), Khreshchatyk and adjoining streets, the City Museum on Aleksandrovskaya Street, monuments, churches, public gardens, the Dnieper, river traffic, bridges, and elevated panoramas of the city and surrounding landscape. Several cards preserve particularly animated street scenes populated with pedestrians, horse-drawn vehicles, commercial signage, market activity, and early urban infrastructure.

Of particular interest is the group's strong postal coherence. The postcards bear Russian Imperial postage stamps canceled with matching or closely corresponding postal markings. Many of the stamps remain affixed conspicuously to the front sides, a common practice on cards of the period. One postcard, captioned “Malorossiiskie tipy [Types Malorussiens],” depicts two young Ukrainian women in traditional embroidered dress; although not a view of Kyiv, it bears the same postal marking as the Kyiv cards and therefore forms an integral part of the original group.

Price: $900.00