Photoglob

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A photochrom photo of the Notre Dame de la Garde funicular in Marseille , circa 1895

The Photoglob AG is a 1889 founded Swiss publishing among other things, postcards , panoramic images , maps and books.

history

Photochrom Zurich

Photochromic print with current inventory number 8335 PZ - Helgoland elevator in gold-colored letters

Photoglob AG was founded in 1889 by what was then Art. Institut Orell Füssli . The purpose at the time was the worldwide distribution of photochromic pictures, i.e. color pictures that were produced from black and white photo templates using a lithographic technique . The process had been developed to market readiness by the Zurich lithographer Hans Jakob Schmid at Orell Füssli. Orell Füssli sold the color images at the time with the addition of their - later renamed - company Photochrom Zurich .

A characteristic of the color pictures from Photochrom Zurich are the gold-colored letters with the consecutive inventory numbers and the initials P.Z. , followed by a picture subtitle . The captions of the individual photochromic prints are printed partly in the languages ​​of the countries shown, partly in the language of the colonial powers of the time . Sometimes there are also bilingual prints.

From the 1890s, licenses to print photochromic prints were also granted to other companies, such as the Detroit Photographic Company (later the Detroit Publishing Company ) in the USA and the Photochrom Company in London , England.

Printing in Zurich, distribution in Detroit

Jews in Jerusalem : 15,129 PZ - JUIFS DE JERUSALEM ; printed by Photochrom Zurich , distributed no later than 1905 by the American Detroit Publishing Co.
electronically highlighted imprint 15.129 PZ - JUIFS DE JERUSALEM

Apparently the American licensee Detroit Publishing Co. also sold prints produced in Zurich, which, however, are often incorrectly assigned to the US company: According to the Library of Congress , the American company had a 1905 catalog J foreign section from 1905 as " Types of Jews in Jerusalem, Holy Land “titled print by Jews in Jerusalem with the serial number 15129 . On closer inspection, however, the actual print bears the gold-colored identifier PZ for Photochrom Zurich , followed by the additional print JUIFS DE JERUSALEM in French - an original print from Europe, the originally printed title of which was not primarily intended for the US market.

Due to the First World War , the market for the Zurich company's color prints collapsed. Photochrom Zurich therefore initially shifted the focus of its activities to the production of postcards with Swiss motifs. After 1918 the company merged with the “Gebrüder Wehrli” company and thus rose to become the largest Swiss postcard publisher.

From 1999

In 1999 the company merged with the Rud publishing house . Suter AG from Oberrieden and with Foto Geiger from Flims . Through additional purchases from the publisher and partnerships , Photoglob was now able to offer postcards with motifs from all parts of Switzerland.

The company is located at Industriestrasse Ost 10 in Hägendorf (Canton Solothurn).

In 2010 Orell Füssli sold the majority of the shares to the previous minority shareholder and managing director Gion Schneller. On January 1, 2015, Orell Füssli also sold its 34% minority stake in Photoglob to Buchzentrum AG in Hägendorf.

Publishing program

In addition to around 20,000 different postcards and motif card series, Photoglob AG produces and / or sells city maps and geographic maps, calendars and (tourist) illustrated books or children's books from Orell Füssli Verlag. With its own and external photographers, Photoglob strives to keep the images up to date.

In 2006 the publishing warehouse and delivery to the logistics company Balmer-Bücherdienst were outsourced.

The photochromic prints

Numbering and dating

The dating of the original photographs, with which Photochrom Zürich used to produce their color lithographs from the late 1880s onwards, can usually only be roughly specified: the comparison of the printed inventory numbers or the first mention in the various sales catalogs give indications of the production of the Photochromic prints. In individual cases, however, the time at which the original black and white photographs were taken may have been years or decades earlier.

Archives and collections

Next to the

  • Photoglob AG archive
  • The Library of Congress holds around 6,000 digital copies with views from Europe and the Middle East as well as around 500 views from North America (as of May 2013).
  • With around 11,000 original prints, the Zurich Central Library owns "the world's largest collection of photochromes", of which around 7,000 copies are "already accessible online". However, further access is only granted after individual registration (as of May 2013). The library notes about its collection:

“The pictures show Switzerland at the height of tourism . Cultural buildings and the steamship or other technical achievements were part of the pride of the nation. Mountaineers in high mountain landscapes, women in traditional costumes and herdsmen convey the image of a people who are in harmony with nature. In addition to the landscape of Switzerland, the photochroms also show representations of distant countries. Oriental markets , cult buildings of other religions or portraits of foreign royal families are brought into the living room and arouse interest in distant countries and cultures . The fastest and most modern means of transport at the time is also presented in the picture. Those who could afford it traveled with the luxury steamer , the interior of which is captured in all its glory in the picture. The strong colors are almost symbolic of the Belle Epoque . "

Literature (selection)

  • Agnès Couzy (Ed.): Photochromic book Alps. Photoglob, Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-2-916231-07-5 . (Large format color reproductions based on 100 years of hand-colored old black and white photos from the Photoglob archive.)
  • Adrian Scherrer (Ed.): Photochromic book Schweiz - Suisse - Svizzera - Switzerland. 1889-1911. [Orell Füssli] Photoglob, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-905873-05-4 '(Large-format color reproductions based on 100-year-old black and white photos from the archive of Photoglob AG in Zurich.)
  • Steven F. Joseph: Photoglob Zurich / Orell Füssli & Co. In: Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Photography. Routledge Press, New York 2008, pp. 1078-1079. (English)
  • Sabine Arqué, Nathalie Boulouch, John Vincent Jezierski, Bruno Weber: Photochromie. Voyage en couleur 1876–1914. Catalog for the exhibition of the Bibliothèque Forney , Paris, from January 27th to 16th. April 2009. Paris 2009-
  • Bruno Weber: From light image with colors to photochromic printing- In: Librarium , 2007, issue 1, pp. 39–49.
  • Peter Kunz: The photochromic print from Lithostein , Küsnacht / Zurich 2006.
  • Max Mittler (Ed.): Germany at the turn of the century. Texts by Helga Königsdorf and Bruno Weber. Zurich 2000.
  • Bruno Weber: Photochrom - dream images of our grandfathers. in: Turicum , 1973, No. 3. pp. 33-41.

Web links

Commons : PZ  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ Products of the publisher, last accessed on May 15, 2013
  2. ↑ a b c d e company / history / photoglob yesterday and today on the company's website, accessed on May 15, 2013.
  3. ↑ a b c Zurich Central Library: Photochrom (see web links)
  4. ↑ a b c d Photochrom Prints / The Photochrom Process of the page of the US Library of Congress (in English), last accessed on May 15, 2013
  5. ↑ Compare the image documentation at Commons (see under the section Weblinks )
  6. ↑ Library of Congress: Types of Jews in Jerusalem, Holy Land (in English), details from an American perspective, last accessed on May 16, 2013
  7. ↑ Contact / address and map on the company's website; Retrieved May 15, 2013.
  8. ↑ History - Photoglob AG. Retrieved on May 2, 2019 (German).
  9. ↑ Compare, for example, the reproductions in: Agnès Couzy (Ed.): Photochrombuch Alpen ... (see literature)
  10. ↑ Compare: About the Photochrom Prints (in English); last accessed on May 18, 2013


Coordinates: 47 ° 22 '10.4 "  N , 8 ° 31' 19.5"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred eighty-one thousand eight hundred thirty-four  /  247089