ICA Trilby

In description it says it was made in 1920s. This is gotta be earlier than because the plaque has a Russian character "Yat'" in the end of the last name that was phased out from Russian language sometime around 1917-1918 I believe.

Vlad

Vlad,

Although the 'Trilby' model was also made in the 1910s, this particular model seeems to have been produced in the 1920s. Is it possible that V. Metenkov used this style of script to illustrate his long standing, or perhaps he just had a lot of plaques left over? I have found very little information on the ICA Trilby, so I may be wrong.

David.

David, I would really doubt that Bolsheviks would let free enterprise like Metenkov to operate past 1918 or so since all private firms were appropriated by the government.. I did find the House of Metenkov Museum page online, I may send them an email asking about some information about the import business.

http://www.metenkov.narod.ru/museum.htm

Vlad.

Sent them an email in Russian, now we wait

Hi Vlad and David,

By the way David, welcome to the forum and thank you for the good information you have been adding!

* 1919 was the nationalization of all optico-mechanical works.
* About 1921 Lenin nationalized the banks, foreign trade, firms with more than five employees, and transport companies.
* 1927 was the collectivization on all agriculture.

So, I think that small shops that sold foreign cameras and photographic supplies were probably allowed to stay open for a few years, at least, after the Revolution, especially since there was not yet any Soviet camera production of note.

I have a Joachim & Sons catalog (a large importer and retailer of photo equipment in Moscow, Kiev, Odessa, etc.) from 1910 and it shows a very similar Trilby camera, but not the exact same model. Possibly this camera was produced for some time. My guess would be late teens - early 20s.

Here is a scan of the page from the catalog:


http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/catalog1.jpg



Regards, Bill

Bill,

Thanks for posting the 1910 catalogue. I am pretty sure that my ICA Tribly is no: VII, so Vlad is correct when he says that the camera is earlier than 1920. All very interesting information. Thank you.

David.

Bill, as always you come up with some invaluable info! Very nice!

Unfortunately all my emails to House of Metenkov email have bounced... I may try calling them, but Bill's info may be the clue that we needed.. as I said before I am really doubtful this camera was imported much later than 1918 because of the old language tag.. I wouldn't imagine why they would use old language writing for more than couple of years even with leftover tags... but again who knows... My personal feeling still that this is pre-revolution camera as I think it seems to be pictured here on this scan what looks like Series VII...

Vlad

Vlad