[BULHAK]. MOSCICKI, Henryk. Wilno. Fotografje J. Bulhaka. Warsaw: F. Hoesicki and J. Zawadzki in Vilnius, 1922.
8vo. Contemporary linen-backed cloth-covered boards, illustrated front wrapper bound in; pp. 72, [4, advertisements] 32 photogravure plates on 16 leaves, printed on both sides, photographic frontispiece on verso of half-title, illustration after a photo pasted in at the end as tailpiece; shelfmark stamped in black on spine and in ink at foot of half-title; otherwise a very good copy.
First edition, very rare. This pictorial record of and essay on Vilnius was published when the city was under Polish administration. The master photographer of Poland of the first half of the 20th century was Jan Bulhak. In 1912 he opened his own studio in Vilnius and lectured at the University where he soon became head of the Institute of Photography in the department of fine arts (1919 - 1939). In 1927, he helped to found the Wilno Photo-Club as well as the Polish Photo-Club in 1929, of which he was also chairman. Just before the outbreak of the Second World War he presented his entire collection to the Polish State and during a German bombardment about 30,000 negatives were destroyed. The author Henryk Moscicki was a professor for modern Polish and Eastern European History, with a focus on Polish-Lithuanian relations in the 19th century.
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