Iosif Samoil Tucarman in front of his ‘Anglo-American’ store

This photo pictures my father, Iosif Samoil Tucarman (on the right), along with the two employees of the Stefanesti store. It was taken in 1928 or 1929, as by 1930 my father went bankrupt given that many clients could not pay their debts and my father in his turn could not pay. It was a big shame in that period when merchants went bankrupt, but the 1930 financial crisis hit very many people. 

Between 1927 and 1930 my father and a friend owned this store on Cuza Voda Street in Iasi; the store name was Anglo-American and it had two branches, one in Pascani and another in Stefanesti. An interesting thing: this store was the first one that imported the first automobiles from England, the Essex Automobiles Super Six. Two of them, I remember from when I was about six years old, were purchased by a gentleman named Zarifopol - a well-known man of letters from Iasi - and by the even more well-known painter Bancila, who only paid an advance, as I recall, around 30%. 

My father once took me along to the painter Bancila to request him to pay some of its debts. I can still see the painter before my eyes! He lived on Pacurari Street and had a house with a porch. We entered the house, Father demanded to be paid the outstanding amount and then the painter said : ‘Mr. Tucarman, look here, pick out of these paintings the ones you like and sell them.’ I remember it, like it was yesterday. Father replied, ‘Mr. Bancila, if you, who paint them and you are well-known, cannot sell them, whom could I sell them to?’ Still, I regret that my father did not take at least a few paintings, which I could have owned today. 

Photos from this interviewee