Old Luxembourg | Three Towers

Old Luxembourg | Three Towers

Shown is a view of visitors walking through what is known as the “Three Towers” in Luxembourg:

The Three Towers belongs to historic monuments in Luxembourg-City. The square central tower dates from the time of the second fortification ring (probably around 1200) while two circular flanking towers were added in the 14th century.  

Born in Luxembourg in 1884, professional musician and amateur photographer Jacques Tillmany (1884-1966) became interested in photography next to fellow musician Sigismund Blumann in the San Francisco Bay area in the early 20th century. In 1907, the two went into business on a part-time basis offering in-home photographic portraiture. (1.)

Published: halftone: Main Gate to Old Citadel: from: Luxembourg, A Photographic Paradise: Camera Craft: August, 1913, p.365

Mr. Tillmany, whose pictures of Luxembourg are worthy of a master’s brush, modestly insists that the camera, not he, deserves all credit for the results. Over a dozen films were exposed each time he went out, each one resulting in a picture well worth a print except as an occasional one was spoiled through error in exposure or failing to wind the key. He found his greatest difficulty in keeping the expenditure for films down to a reasonable. figure, the subjects being so plentiful and inviting. To say that one can take pictures two hundred days in a year, and take several dozens a day, working within a radius of a few miles, will perhaps give some adequate idea of the possibilities of this photographic gold-mine, beautiful Luxembourg. – Ibid: p. 368

1. Sigismund Blumann, California Editor and Photographer: in: History of Photography: Vol. 26, No. 1 Spring, 2002: “About the time he moved to Oakland, in 1907, Blumann became a part-time portrait photographer, as a sideline to his musical career. He joined with Jacques Tillmany, a fellow musician, to offer home portraiture, a line of portrait photography popularized by such advanced East-Coast workers as Clarence H. White.” p. 54. From the editor: Census and newspaper accounts show Tillmany lived in the Bay area in the early 20th Century but waited until 1952 when petitioning for US Immigration in listing his arrival in New York on the SS Lapland on Feb. 20, 1911. (Family Search, May, 2024)

Title
Old Luxembourg | Three Towers
Photographer
Country
Medium
Year
Dimensions

Image Dimensions10.0 x 5.8 cm tipped

Support Dimensions10.8 x 6.2 | 12.0 x 7.1 | 13.9 x 8.5 cm

Print Notes

Recto: titled in gold ink along margin of secondary mount: OLD LUXEMBOURG.

Verso: titled in graphite in hand of artist on tertiary cardstock mount: Jacques Tillmany

Provenance

Purchased for this archive in December, 2019 from the photographer and editor Sigismund Blumann’s grandson Thomas High.