#MD18
1857
Elephant Folio broadside (ca. 45x33 cm), with the additional leaf for border officers’ entries attached to the bottom (ca. 20,5x33 cm). 1 p. Official woodcut passport form filled in brown ink. With over a dozen officials’ entries and stamps on verso. Fold marks, paper age toned, worn on extremities, but overall a very good document.
Interesting example of a 19th century European travel passport. It was given to a “portrait maker and photographer” Friedrich Karl August Kühnemann, a native and resident of Berlin, for his work in Russia and was valid for one year. There is an interesting description of Kühnemann’s appearance: “26 years old, of medium height, hair and eyebrows fair, eyes brown, nose and mouth ordinary, chin and face oblong”. The notes left by consular or border officials range from 29 January/10 February to 25 October/3 November 1857. According to them, Kühnemann travelled via Austria and Breslau, crossed the Russian border at Brody, and proceeded to Husiatin, Kamenets-Podolsky and Odessa.
