An old iron gate in Tallinn. The inscription says “W. Paech in Reval 1868.” Reval was the old name for Tallinn, in use from the 13th century until 1917. Estonia was part of the Russian Empire in the 19th century; however, Baltic Germans made up the majority of the city’s […]
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My friend found an antique roller shutter in Zhovkva, an old fortress town near Lviv. As the manufacturer’s mark is in German, and the company was based in Vienna, the shutter probably dates to before WWI. Photo credit: Charitie Hyman
This is a unique find for me. There are about 8 of these antique locks still attached to a building in Rzeszów, Poland. They were made by a company L. Russ in Drohobycz. The city of Drohobycz is presently in Ukraine, but both Drohobycz and Rzeszów were historically part of Galicia […]
I found a few antique Vienna- and Rzeszów-made roller shutters and locks in Rzeszów, a city in Galicia that is now in Poland. Alfred Woltär Wien Probably the same A. Woltär that made shutters, which can still be found in Vienna. Rzeszów-made locks and shutters
In Chernivtsi I found manhole covers from Austrian (pre-WWI) and Romanian (interwar) times. I saw both German-language and Romanian-language ones. The Austrian-era ones use the German name for the city, Czernowitz. The ones made by Pittel & Brausewetter company include Wien (Vienna). This company was founded in 1870 in Bratislava […]
In Chernivtsi I saw a few tiles with the inscription “Leon Schrenzel Czernowitz.” Overall, I saw the name of only one company that manufactured tiles. Leon Schrenzel’s building materials company was founded in 1887 – a time when Chernivtsi would have been part of the Austrian Empire.
In Krakow I found an old metal roller shutter made by a company from Lviv—Bielicki (several shutters by this company still remain in Lviv). In this instance, however, it seems as though the company was partnered with a company called Wietzen. And actually I recently found the same exact plate […]
Chernivtsi has quite a few Austrian- and Romanian-era metal roller shutters. Like in Lviv, some inscriptions include the company’s address (i.e., J. Engel Cernauţi Strada Wilson 7, which is Romanian for J. Engel Chernivtsi 7 Wilson Street). Lviv has this same Prague-made shutter
Something that I haven’t noticed in Lviv and Europe in general is iron fire escapes on the sides of buildings. I read that the reason such fire escapes are a rarity in Europe is because European cities have a long history of fire prevention and safety and were always ahead […]
In downtown Winnetka, I found a well-preserved coal chute. The building and chute date to the early twentieth century, probably between 1900 and 1930. The Majestic Company was founded in 1907 in Huntington, Indiana. It manufactured coal chutes, garbage receivers, package receivers, and fireplace dampers. Here is is an original […]
In Tallinn, I found an old metal roller shutter with a Russian inscription. Estonia was part of the Russian Empire until 1917 and so the shutter dates to before the Russian Revolution. From an issue of the newspaper Сибирскій листокъ, dated April 10, 1905, there is an advertisement for Штори […]
