The postcard General View of the City of Tambov was printed in the early 20th century in the Moscow Northern Art Publishing House. This enterprise was founded by brothers Johvedson in 1912. They mostly developed and printed postcards with views of Russian cities. Despite the low quality of paint and paper, today their postcards are considered rare.
Postcards became popular in Russia with the advent of the open letter in 1872 — then they began to send not whole letters, but messages in the open form, written on a special card made of thick cardboard.
The postcard General view of the city of Tambov was a collotype, made using a chemically-based printing process. It was a method of printing of images from glass or metal plates. The printers would cover the plate with a layer of light-sensitive gelatin and dry it. Then they would press the negative image to the plate tightly, place them together into a copy frame and illuminate them with direct sunlight or ultraviolet light. After that they would wash the plate and etch it with a special solution, so that the sensitive gelatin layer, illuminated through the negative image, would crack and absorb the paint. The darker the fragment of the negative image was, the less paint gelatin absorbed. The resulting cliche would be fixed in the printing press and prints on paper would be made from it — one could obtain up to 500 prints for one hydration with paint. This method of printing was good for conveying half-tones and was better than lithography, so it became popular in publishing in the late 19th century.
In total, there are more than 600 copies of cards with views of Tambov in the collection of postcards of the museum; all of them were printed before 1917. Among them there are postcards with unique photos, but on most of them city views are repeated. Researchers explain this by the fact that postcards were designated mostly for visitors and the popular views of Tambov were the best sellers.
The Northern Art Publishing House often printed themed series of postcards. There are all in all 33 postcards in the series, in which the General View of the City of Tambov was under number 24. It presents unusual angles and points from which photographers took pictures. The view of Tambov on the museum postcard is made from the bell tower of the Kazan monastery. The photographer captured the main buildings of the time — Pitirim gymnasium, House of Andreyevsky, Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral, Naryshkin reading hall, Alexandrinsky Institute of Noble Maidens. In the far-off area one can see the Nicolas Church, on the site of which in 1959 the House of Political Enlightenment was built.
Postcards became popular in Russia with the advent of the open letter in 1872 — then they began to send not whole letters, but messages in the open form, written on a special card made of thick cardboard.
The postcard General view of the city of Tambov was a collotype, made using a chemically-based printing process. It was a method of printing of images from glass or metal plates. The printers would cover the plate with a layer of light-sensitive gelatin and dry it. Then they would press the negative image to the plate tightly, place them together into a copy frame and illuminate them with direct sunlight or ultraviolet light. After that they would wash the plate and etch it with a special solution, so that the sensitive gelatin layer, illuminated through the negative image, would crack and absorb the paint. The darker the fragment of the negative image was, the less paint gelatin absorbed. The resulting cliche would be fixed in the printing press and prints on paper would be made from it — one could obtain up to 500 prints for one hydration with paint. This method of printing was good for conveying half-tones and was better than lithography, so it became popular in publishing in the late 19th century.
In total, there are more than 600 copies of cards with views of Tambov in the collection of postcards of the museum; all of them were printed before 1917. Among them there are postcards with unique photos, but on most of them city views are repeated. Researchers explain this by the fact that postcards were designated mostly for visitors and the popular views of Tambov were the best sellers.
The Northern Art Publishing House often printed themed series of postcards. There are all in all 33 postcards in the series, in which the General View of the City of Tambov was under number 24. It presents unusual angles and points from which photographers took pictures. The view of Tambov on the museum postcard is made from the bell tower of the Kazan monastery. The photographer captured the main buildings of the time — Pitirim gymnasium, House of Andreyevsky, Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral, Naryshkin reading hall, Alexandrinsky Institute of Noble Maidens. In the far-off area one can see the Nicolas Church, on the site of which in 1959 the House of Political Enlightenment was built.
