GREECE AND TURKEY [spine title]. AN ALBUM OF 62 BLACK & WHITE ALBUMEN PHOTOGRAPHS, INCLUDING VIEWS OF THE ACROPOLIS IN ATHENS AND HAGIA SOPHIA IN CONSTANTINOPLE, ca. 1866 - 1899

NP: np, 1899. Oblong photo album, 11 x 15.5 in., bound in 3/4 leather and embroidered cloth boards. Gilt title on spine. Professional photos laid down on stiff card stock mounted on cloth tape stubs, one photo to a page, recto and verso, varying in size from 10 x 13 in., to 8 x 10 in.; with 8 smaller images, 5 x 3.5 in. to 5 x 8 in. The first group of 15 photos, most approx. 8 x 10 in., and one smaller, show views of the Acropolis in Athens both from a distance and with a closer focus on specific architectural features. Two additional photos depict the Panathenaic Stadium, site of the first modern Olympic games, held in Athens in 1896. One image shows the stadium empty of spectators, with a scattered group of well-dressed men examining the site; the second (mottled, a bit faded) shows the stands packed to capacity and anticipating an event. Two smaller images are studio photos of people in traditional Greek dress. Most of the images have numbers printed in the negative, but no other identifying marks.
The remainder of the album, with 37 large photos [10 x 13 in. to 7.75 x 10 in.], and 5 smaller [5 x 3.5 in.] are views of various sites in Turkey. Nineteen have caption titles and numbers, and the name of the photographers Abdullah Freres in the negatives. They include: Akhir-Kapou; Vue prise du Vieux Serail [Topkapi]; Ste. Sophie [Hagia Sophia], La Tribune Imperial; Ste. Sophie, Vue de la Chaire; Tombeau du Sultan Mahmoud; Trone des Anciens Sultans; Mosquee dy Sultan Ahmed; Palais de Tcheraghan; etc. At least two others belong to a Swedish photographer, G[uillaume] Berggren, with his name in the negative: Escaliers de Dolma-Bagtche; Escaliers [de] palais de Beyte[?]. The three Abdullah brothers combined their talents in a Constantinople photographic studio in 1858. According to
Wendy Shaw's book "Possessors and Possessed: Museums, Archaeology, and the Visualization of History in the Late Ottoman Empire," (Univ. of California Press: 2003), these young men of Armenian descent first purchased an established business in the Beyazit neighborhood of Constantinople in 1858, but moved it to Pera, a more prominent location in the city in 1867. Abdullah Freres became official court photographers to Sultan Abudulaziz and "one of the most famous photographic establishments and galleries of the era." They were responsible for the panoramic views on display at the Turkish exhibition at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1867 and a book of photographs produced for the 1873 Vienna World Exposition, helping to fuel European interest in the country. The shop closed in 1899.
Guillaume Berggren (1835-1920) was a self-taught Swedish photographer who first arrived in Constantinople in 1866. He opened his studio in the Pera neighborhood in 1870, producing studio, tourist, and architectural photographs. He continued to work in the city for the rest of his life, though his fortunes suffered and he died in poverty.