[FIRST FABRIC OF LOCOMOTIVES IN POLAND S. A.] Première Fabrique de Locomotives en Pologne S.A.. Usine et Direction à Chrzanów, Siège Central Varsovie, Moniuszki 2A. [after 1929?]
S. [16], 16 f. plates with original photographs pasted in. album dimensions: 32.5 x 23.3 cm / photographs: 16.5 x 11.5 cm. Prints in sepia, on gelatin-silver paper.
Album in cloth binding, tied with string on spine. Embossed and gilded inscriptions on the face. Cover boards made of decorative marbled paper. Binding by Robert Jahoda of Krakow (signed with a sticker on the reverse of the back pastedown).
Loosening of the string binding the binding. Rear part of binding cracked. Otherwise nice condition.
The album consists of descriptive texts and pasted original photographs depicting steam locomotives produced at the Chrzanow plant. Among the models shown are the most famous steam locomotives of Polish production, such as the TY-23, designed by Eng. Waclaw Lopuszynski in 1923. The author of the photographs was Eng. Karol Tolkemit (information per "Commemorative Publishing of the First Locomotive Factory in Poland [...], Warsaw 1932).
An exclusive album of the "First Locomotive Factory in Poland Joint Stock Company in Chrzanów" issued on an unknown occasion, but not earlier than 1929 (dating based on company plates placed on the steam locomotives, where the date "1929" is the latest). No more extensive information on the circulation of this publication is available; however, its exclusive nature indicates a relatively small print run, intended mainly for the company's board of directors and executives, as well as the company's most important contractors.
Perhaps the album was issued to celebrate the production of the 500th steam locomotive (for the French Railway Company in Morocco) in February 1932 - but this is only a research hypothesis. The commemorative publication, available in the POLONA library, contains some of the photographs (in the form of reproductions) that appeared in the offered album.
Very rare.