Oblong Folio album (ca. 26,5x34 cm or ca. 10 ¼ x 13 ¼ in). 66 card stock leaves (all but the first leaf with period manuscript white ink numbers in the upper right corners). With 80 mounted gelatin silver photographs of various sizes, from ca. 12x17 cm (4 ¾ x 6 ¾ in) to ca. 9,5x14,5 cm (3 ¾ x 5 ¾ in). All photos with period manuscript white ink captions on the mounts (some with spelling mistakes and period corrections in a blue pencil); the first leaf with a period manuscript white ink title. Period dark brown full sheep album fastened with a string; front board with a colour stamped title “Bulgarien” at the centre and a smaller stamp “Bulgarischen Zentral Kooperativ Bank” in the right lower corner. Binding rubbed on extremities, several mounts with mild water stains on the upper margins, one image with a visible water stain on the upper margins; a couple of photos very mildly faded or with mild silvering, but overall a very good album of strong interesting photos.

Attractive album with eighty original gelatin silver photos showing Bulgarian cities, monasteries, churches, villages and portraits of local peasants in ca. 1920s. Produced by a photographer from Sofia, “Dim.[itri] Katzeff,” the album was most likely intended for a German-speaking administrator or partner of the country’s second state bank - Bulgarian Central Cooperative Bank, founded in 1910.

The album opens with a photo of the building of the Bulgarian Central Cooperative Bank in Sofia (note a visible sign “Banque Centrale Cooperative de Bulgaria” on the building). The other views of Sofia show the entrance gate to the royal Vrana Palace, Alexander Nevsky Square with the Cathedral and Saint Sofia Church, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (two close-up views), Ivan Vazov National Theatre, the University, National Assembly, monuments to Vasil Levsky (inaugurated in 1895) and the Tsar Liberator (inaugurated in 1907), and Maria Luiza Boulevard with the Banya Bashi Mosque. Seven views of the Black Sea resort of Varna show royal summer residence Euxinograd, the city’s main swimming beach and terraces, park, Sts. Constantin and Helena resort near Varna (founded in 1908), and Aladzha cave monastery. The other photos depict: Veliko Tarnovo (general view, a bridge over the Yantra River, Holy Transfiguration Monastery, railroad tunnel, several street views, interior of a “royal house” in the nearby village of Arbanasi); Tryavna (an old bridge and a bell tower, city streets, a wood-carved ceiling decoration); Plovdiv (general views taken from above, cobble-paved streets); Stanimaka (renamed Asenovgrad in 1934: a general view, the interior of an Orthodox church, Asen’s Fortress with the Church of the Holy Mother of God, Bachkovo Monastery); Peshtera; Karlovo; Shipka (the Memorial Church).

Ten images of the Monastery of St. John of Rila include a general view and close-up photos of the Church of Nativity of the Virgin Mary, the Tower of Hrelja, the courtyard with the arched outer corridors, and the interior of the room for pilgrims. Over a dozen lively images portray Bulgarian peasant women in traditional dress reaping wheat, harvesting and sorting grapes, tending a tobacco field, drying and sorting tobacco leaves, plucking and transporting rose petals, &c. Overall, an attractive, extensive collection of original photos of Bulgaria’s cities, religious sites and portraits of Bulgarians taken in the 1920s.