Exceptional set of nearly 190 photographs, mostly... Lot 43

Exceptional set of nearly 190 photographs, mostly vintage albumin and citrate prints (some laminated and/or captioned in pencil on versos), and a few silver prints. Eastern Europe, Eastern Asia, Imperial Russia, Russian Empire, Arctic Siberia, Caucasus, Moldavia, Romania, Ukraine, Georgia, Tbilisi, Crimea, Uzbekistan, Romania, Shaman, locals, traditions, manners, customs and miscellaneous. Circa 1875-1880 (some visuals circa 1920-1930). Identified photographers: Ivan RAOULT (attributed to the majority of visuals, active 1870-1884, J. X. Raoult), Franta VITKU (stamp of the latter on about ten versos), Dimitri ERMAKOV (one visual attributed with dry stamp on laminated albumen print) or Kurt und Margot LUBINSKI (stamp on some versos, prints, circa 1920-1930). Subjects: Russians, children, women in traditional dress, events, traditions, Emperor's escort, Moldavia, Caucasian, Baikal - fishermen's camp, Transcaucasia - national dance, traditional dance, Gurie, Gurian soldiers, Cheremisses, Tiflis, Kakhetia, Persians, Imerethia, Emerithians, Svanets, Archbishop of Odessa, priest, Cossack Colonel, Kuban Cossack officer, militia, Kiev government, Tula government, Tambov government, Kherson government, Kursk government, Podolia government, peasants, hunters, inn, Orel government, Tver government, Bessarabia government, Simbirsk government, Volhynia government, Chernigov government, Poltava government, government of Nizhny Novgorod, Kabardine, Chernihiv, Emerithian militia, Russia - government of Simbirsk - wedding among the Cheremeisses, government of Kazan, Mullah and his wives, shamanism priest in his hut behind him the "Magic Drum", among the Tatars, Tatar merchants, government of Tauride, Tatar priest, Crimean Tatars, merchants taking tea, Georgian nobility, carters, harvesters, noblewoman, White Sea Samoyeds, Eskimos, village, type of villager, woodkeeper, carters, Bulgarian spinners, Bulgarian girls, Bulgarian settlers, Moscow, St. Petersburg, merchants, coachmen, gold miners, Mingrelian Jew, Tiflis Jew, Circassian Jew, noblewoman, etc. On one recto, annotations in Cyrillic. On some versos, annotations, captions and/or stamps (some with plate no.). Some prints mounted on cardboard. Various states (some visuals missing and/or marked). Average visual sizes approx. 10.8 x 7.3 to 24.8 x 20.5 cm. Several similar photographs are held by the Musée d'Orsay and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département Estampes et Photographie: Ivan Raoult (J.X. Raoult), French photographer based in Odessa, knight of several orders, collaborating member of the Imperial University of Odessa, honorable mention of S. M. l'Empereur de toutes les Russies, medal at the Exposition Universelle de Paris 1878. It was at the time of this trip to France that he sold to the Cabinet des Estampes a set of portraits entitled Types et costumes de la Russie (....). He set out to record the physiognomies and traditional dress of all the peoples making up the Russian Empire for the benefit of science, and many of his images were indeed reproduced in engraving in Élisée Reclus's famous Géographie universelle (1882) (...).