Description
Object description
Photograph albums and loose prints relating to the life of Captain Alexander Savitsky from his childhood on an estate in Russia near Ekaterinburg through his time as a cavalry officer in the Imperial Russian Army to his life in Britain following his escape from Russia in 1919.
The photographs include a half-length portrait of Alexander Savitsky as a child taken by the Imperial Court photographer Levitsky from St Petersburg and similar but as a young army officer in 1913. Also a full-length studio portrait of an unidentified Russian cavalry officer, and a modern copy print of a photograph from ca.1850 of a group of Russian officials, including Alexander Savitsky's grandfather (seated second from left).
Album 1 contains photographs dating from before the First World War to 1929. These include family scenes on the Savitsky's estate in Russia; wartime images (1914-1916) of cavalry officers, nurses and Russian soldiers beside a dead body on a 1915 battlefield; Russian refugees at a former British army camp at Newmarket used as initial accommodation in 1919; family scenes during the 1920s in Hampstead, Ostend, Selsey, Newton Abbot.
Album 2 primarily contains family snapshots taken at various locations in Britain during the 1920s and 1930s. In addition there are a couple of photographs taken in Russian during the First World War, including one of a military band. The albumalso contains professional photographs of the interior of a trader in furs and Russian handicrafts (Arkos Ltd) in New York in 1923.
Album 3: Along with numerous family photographs taken in Selsey, Sussex, are images of Alexander Savitsky during his service as a sergeant and later officer in the Selsey Home Guard during the Second World War. These include a number of photographs showing a parade through the town in which the local Home Guard took part. Other wartime photographs of interest show Tania Savitsky paddling in the sea at Selsey with barbed wire beach defences just behind her. The album also includes a series of photographs showing Bentley-Maudsley, inventor of Carburol engine lubricant at work and a view through the front gates of the Carburol factory in London.
Album 4: This album contains a variety of family photographs taken in Russia prior to the First World War and in Britain before and after the war. A number of the photographs, along with three press cuttings, refer to Alexander Savitsky's fur trading business and its commercial links with the USSR during the 1920s and 1930s.
Other photographs relating to Alexander Savitsky's business life are three large photographs taken at formal business dinners: British Fur Trade Alliance Dinner at Hotel Metropole, January 1929; Dinner in honour of Mr N A Bogomoloff (USSR Trade Representative in Britain) by members of the London Fur Frade, Savoy Hotel, London, 12 February 1937; third dinner is not identified but is also attended by wives as well as traders.
Physical description
Four photograph albums containing black and white photographic prints, loose black and white photographic prints and photo postcards. Three black and white portrait carte de visites, three large group photographs in card enclosures and ten loose black and white photographic prints / photo postcards and one photographic image on a metal backing.