Unique Photos of 19th Century Georgia Sold at Paris Auction

TBILISI - Photos of Georgia taken in late 19th and early 20th centuries were sold at Hotel Drouot auction house in Paris for 2 000 Euros, the historian Ana Cheishvili informs.

‘As I had thought, our lot was sold for 2 000 Euros and it was purchased by an online customer. We hope it was a Georgian and so the collection will not be scattered’, - Cheishvili writes on her Facebook page.

She also says the lot number 110 contained 192 photos taken in southern Caucasus in 1899-1906 and the name of the photographer is unknown.

However, most probably, the images were taken by a French geologist who worked at Georgia’s copper mines during that period. Out of 192 photos, 67 were taken in Georgia, namely in Batumi (10 photos), Tiflis (22 photos.

Some of them depict a funeral procession), Poti port (4 photos), Sokhumi (8 photos. In that period, Sokhumi had no harbor and the sailors had to reach the shore by little boats), Black Sea (4 photos), Gori (2 photos), Sadakhlo (1 photo), Georgian Military Road (16 photos: Kazbegi, Dusheti, Gudauri, Ananuri, Mtskheta).

Source: Georgian Journal