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The two main albumen formts were CDVs and cabinet cards. The dominant format in Bulgaria was the cabinet cards. CDVs had declined sharply in America, but were still being made in many European countries. They do not seem for some reason to have been very popular in Bulgaria. We have found mostly cabinet cards. CDVs were especially popular (1860s-70s), especilly in Europe. At this time, Bulgaria was an Ottoman province with limired Western influencess. One example of this was photography. We note little or no indication of a funcr=tuinung photographic industry. We are still working on this topic. Hopefully Bulgarian readers will be able to offer some insights.
CDVs had declined sharply in America by the 1880s when we begin to see Bulgarian photographs. We see some CDVs in America even in the 1880s, but the cabinet card was dominant. This was not the case in the makor Europen countries. We still see quite number of CDVs in Europe, but cabinet card were becoming dominant. The CDV for some reason do not seem for some reason to have been very popular in Bulgaria. Bulgarian studios seem to have concentrated on cabinet cards, perhaps because by the time taht Bulgaria emerged from Ottoman dominance and photography became more common tyhat cabinet cards were already common. This we see very few Bulgarian CDVs. As studios were set up, they appearto have fiocused mostly on cabinet cards. Of course our Bulgarian archive is relatively limited. So we do not yet claim to have a valid sample, bjut what we have is amost exclusively cabinet cards. .
Our Bulgarian archive is very limited, but whar wev have cquired is almost entirely caninr cards in the late-19th and earky-20th century. Often the information on the front included spelled out 'Cabinet Portrait' rather than the studio name and location as was standard in America. We see this in other eastern European countries as well. We do not see that in America and Western Europe. We are not yet sure about CDVs. The CDV was the first albumen format to become popular (1860s). It appeared a few years before the cabinet card. But all of this was while Bulgaria was still under Ottoman control and contacts with the West and Western technologies like photography were limited. We do not know if CDVs were taken. We suspect that they were, but cabinet cards were clearly the dominant format. And as we see in other countries, there are sharp differences between cabinet card mounts beginning around the turn-of-the 20th century we see different mount styles. During the 19th century we see the classic mount style that did not varh much. Than about the turn-of-the 20th century we see all kinds of new and varied mount styles. Thus this shift from classic to new style mounts occurred at about the same time as in America. Tghe colors alsom seem similar, althiough we do see on redish brown mount hat wer so not see in America. Our limited Bulgarian archive makes assssments difficult. Some of the cabinet cards after the turn of the 20th century may have been done with silver nitrate prints, but this is difficult to determine without the actual print so we are including them as long as they were mounted on CDV or cabinet card mount as the mount is useful in dating. And ge simikarity od styles and chronology to American trends is a hlpful clue when dealing withn undated images. Dating is one of the primary reasons for our interest in photography. Of course a silver nitrate photograph also helps with the dating.
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