Michael Lehr Antiques
Live Auction

2026 European Photography Auction

Wed, Oct 28, 2026 01:00PM EDT
  2026-10-28 13:00:00 2026-10-28 13:00:00 America/New_York Michael Lehr Michael Lehr : 2026 European Photography Auction https://auction.michaellehrantiques.com/auctions/michael-lehr-antiques/2026-european-photography-auction-24401
Our October auction focuses on historic European photography, we are offering a curated collection of fine and erotic daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, CDV, cabinet cards, stereoviews, and a range of curious and uncommon nineteenth-century European vernacular material. At the center of the sale is a collection of images from the Paris Commune of 1871 and the surrounding “année terrible,” the year of war, siege, insurrection, and reprisal that reshaped France. The focus is on the people who drove those events and lived through their aftermath, and on the city that bore the damage.
Michael Lehr Antiques info@michaellehrantiques.com
Lot 399

CDV, Russian Horse-Drawn Cart with Figures, St. Petersburg

Estimate: $100 - $200
Starting Bid
$10

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$100 $10
$200 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
Three men pose beside a loaded horse-drawn telega on an unpaved village street, captured in an outdoor genre scene uncommon among Russian CDVs of the period. The photograph was produced by I. Monshtein, a studio operating at the corner of Bolshaya Morskaya Street and Nevsky Prospekt in the Kotomin House, Saint Petersburg, placing the work firmly in the 1860s to 1870s when outdoor documentary subjects of this character were produced alongside conventional portraiture.

The horse, a sturdy dark animal in full harness, stands left of frame hitched to a flat-bed cart with large spoked wheels and rope lashings over its cargo. Two of the men wear long overcoats and peaked caps and lean together at the cart's side, while the third, bearded and wearing a tunic belted at the waist, stands to the right. A wooden log-built structure with latticed windows and climbing foliage fills the background, and a fourth figure is barely visible at the far right margin.

The Kotomin House on Nevsky Prospekt, where Monshtein's studio was located, was one of Saint Petersburg's prominent commercial addresses. The studio's imprint reads "I. Monshtein" in Latin characters along the left edge of the image face, confirming attribution. The reverse imprint reads, in Russian: "Fotograff I. Monshtein, Na uglu bolshoy Morskoy (byvsh. maloy Milionnoy) i Nevskago prospekta, v dome Kotomina kv. No. 63, protiv Angliyskago magazina" (Photographer I. Monshtein, at the corner of Bolshaya Morskaya Street, formerly Malaya Milionnaya, and Nevsky Prospekt, in the Kotomin House, apartment No. 63, opposite the English Shop). A handwritten notation in pencil on the reverse reads "Russian cart."

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We ship for free on combined lot values of $500 or higher in the United States. We will be traveling to Paris November 8-14th and can deliver any of our items at Paris Photo or the show on Saturday.