[House of Romanov, Europe Royalty] A Unique photographic album, c.1865 including EIGHTY (80) carte-de-visite (CDV) albumen photographs from various famous photographers that worked in Russia and Europe. It reflects the actual middle 19th century Russian and European society, combining portraits of royal and prominent personalities, with portraits of working-class men & women, all captured by pioneer photographers. The photographs are placed in a leather bound photographic album, paneled in a metallic frame and including two metal clasps. The front cover is beautifully decorated in gilt and with embedded ivory strips. The album contains 20 carton leaves with gilt edges, each of them with special cases for the placement of the CDV photographs. Regarding Russia and the Royal Romanov family, it includes 18 photographs depicting members of the Russian royal House of Romanov, by the photographers Sergei Lvovich Levitsky (St. Petersburg), Charles Bergamasco (St. Petersburg) & Georg Emil Hansen (Copenhagen). The 15 members of the royal House of Romanov identified are listed below, along with the photographers named on the passe-partout: Maria Feodorovna - Princess Dagmar of Denmark, Empress of Russia, Georg Emil Hansen - Copenhagen Empress Consort of Alexander II Maria Alexandrovna, by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky - St Petersburg Grand Duke Constantin, by Charles Bergamasco - St Petersburg Dmitriy, Constantin and Vyacheslav Konstantinovichs of Russia by Charles Bergamasco - St Petersburg Tsar Alexander II Nikolaevich Romanov “Sasha”, by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky - St Petersburg Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna, by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky - St Petersburg Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, by Charles Bergamasco - St Petersburg Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, by Charles Bergamasco - St Petersburg Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, in his childhood, by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky - St Petersburg Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich of Russia, in his childhood, by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky - St Petersburg Grand Duchess Anastasia Petrovna, by Charles Bergamasco - St Petersburg Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, by Charles Bergamasco - St Petersburg Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia, by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky - St Petersburg Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna of Russia - Princess Cecilie of Baden, by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky - St Petersburg Queen Olga of Greece - Grand Duchess Olga Kostantinovna of Russia, by Charles Bergamasco - St Petersburg The photograph of Queen Olga of Greece (Olga Kostantinovna – Βασίλισσα Όλγα των Ελλήνων) is placed beside an early photograph of King George I of Greece (Βασιλιάς Γεώργιος Α’), photographed again by Charles Bergamasco in St Petersburg, indicating that the photos are taken upon their first meeting in St. Petersburg in 1863, in which they arranged their marriage. From Russia, also included four (4) albumen photos depicting early views of St. Petersburg (c.1860) and seven (7) rare photographs - portraits of Russian ‘types’, providing a fascinating record of working-class men & women, workers, peasants, street sellers. Among them, a photograph by Johann Monstein - St Petersburg depicts a boy selling wheelbarrows. The rest photographs portraying members of European Royal families are: AUSTRIA: Three (3) photographs of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of Hungary (“Sisi”), photographed by Rabending und Monckhoven, c.1865, among them a rare capture depicting her with her Irish wolfhound, Houseguard. One photograph of Franz Joseph I of Austria, and one photograph of Prince Rudolf, Archduke of Austria, both photographed by Ludwig Angerer. BELGIUM: Three (3) photographs of Queen Marie Henriette of Belgium, and two (2) photographs of Leopold II of Belgium, photographed by Louis-Joseph Ghémar ITALY: Photograph of Vittorio Emanuele II, by Fratelli Alinari SPAIN: Two (2) photographs of Amedeo I of Spain, by Fratelli Alinari UNITED KINGDOM: One photograph of Queen Victoria, photographed by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri The album also includes scarce photographs from GERMANY, with four (4) hand-coloured portraits of everyday men & women by Julius Hahn – Hamburg, c.1865 and an earlier one by G. Linde, Putbus. Also, five (5) photographs of animals & flowers from “Gesetzl. Deponirt” & “Blumen und Bluth”, and five (5) portraits by Heinrich Graf – Berlin. Six (6) photographs from DENMARK depicting most possible members of the royal court photographed by Jens Petersen Copenhagen. Among them Louise Emilie Cathrine Grevenkop-Castenskiold (1853-1935), Danish noblewoman, "overhofmester" (=seneschal) at the court of Queen Alexandrine of Denmark. From FRANCE, the album includes a rare erotic photograph of the American actress, painter and poet Miss. Adah Isaacs Menken (1835-1868), photographed Reutlinger, Paris, c. 1865. Finally, included a photograph from GREECE “ΠΑΝΑΓΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ”, two (2) photographs from ALEXANDRIE, by Antoine Schier & Otto Schoefft, and one (1) photograph from Constantinople - ABDULLAH FRERES – PERA Almost all photographs in fine condition, 16 with contemporary hand-colouring. Album missing the spine, although thick inside, and few ivory strips missing from the front cover. PHOTOGRAPHERS’ BIOGRAPHIES: Sergei Lvovich Levitsky (1819 – 1898) is considered one of the patriarchs of Russian photography and one of Europe’s most important early photographic pioneers, inventors and innovators. His ability to speak several languages allowed him to participate in a government commission to study the composition and therapeutic properties of mineral waters in the Caucasus. On his mission there in 1843, accompanied by the chemist and botanist Carl Julius Fritzsche, an associate of the chemistry department at the Emperor’s Academy of Sciences. Levitsky made several daguerreotype views using his camera and the French-made Chevalier lens, which Fritzsche had brought with him from Paris. Daguerreotype, the first form of photography, was invented by Louis Daguerre in 1839. One problem was that it required exposure times as long as thirty minutes to create a portrait. Levitsky’s use of the 1840 Charles Chevalier-designed lens, known as the “Photographe à Verres Combinés” as it combined two cemented achromats; reduced the time needed to capture an image as it improved the camera’s focusing ability. The lens brought speeds down to about f/5.6 for portrait work, and, as a bonus, the lens could be converted for use as a landscape lens. In 1845, Levitsky travelled to Rome and Venice in Italy before undertaking a course in physics and chemistry at the Sorbonne in Paris but is not listed as working as a professional photographer. He had returned to Russia by 1849, when he opened a studio in St Petersburg. It is in Paris in the 1840s that Sergei Levitsky would study photography, meet with Daguerre personally and distinguish himself in the technical sphere of photographic development. Daguerre who had heard about the talented Russian photographer met with Levitsky cordially and with great interest. In 1847, Sergei designed a bellows camera which significantly improved the process of focusing. This adaptation influenced the design of cameras for decades and is still found in use today in some professional cameras. While in Paris, he would become the first to introduce interchangeable decorative backgrounds in his photos, as well as the retouching of negatives to reduce or eliminate technical deficiencies. In 1849, the images of the Caucasus, Pyatigorsk (large Daguerreotype landscape views made on plates 30x40cm and 24x30cm in size) captured by Levitsky, were exhibited by the famous Parisian optician Charles Chevalier at the Paris Exposition of the Second Republic, also known as the “Exposition Nationale des produits de l’industrie agricole et manufacturière”, as an advertisement of their lenses. These photos would receive the Exposition’s gold medal; the first time a prize of its kind had ever been awarded to a photograph. Between 1859 and 1864 Sergei Levitsky operated a photographic studio at 22, rue de Choiseul in Paris formerly the address for American daguerreotypist Warren Thompson and joined the Société Française de Photographie. Charles Bergamasco (1830-1896, active 1860s-1880s) - Born in Northern Italy, Charles Bergamasco moved to St Petersburg in the 1840s with his mother, a painter. He started as an actor at the French Theatre in St Petersburg but became interested in the daguerreotype process and went to Paris to study it. He returned to St Petersburg to open his own studio and after a few years became well known there and in Europe, winning prizes at exhibitions, photographing at many courts and receiving several decorations. Georg Emil Hansen (1833 – 1891) was one of Denmark's pioneering photographers in the second half of the 19th century. He had his own studio in Copenhagen and later became a successful court photographer. He learnt the art of daguerreotyping from his father C.C. Hansen who had begun to produce daguerreotypes in 1849. After studying photography in Germany, in 1854 he helped his father set up a studio near Kongens Nytorv in the centre of Copenhagen. The new equipment he had brought back from Germany was of considerable assistance. In 1856, he opened a studio of his own, but in 1867, he joined with his brother Niels Christian Hansen (a portrait painter) and Albert Schou (a businessman) to create the famous studio that (with the addition of Clemens Weller) would be known as Hansen, Schou & Weller. He later became a court photographer, taking photographs of royalty in Denmark, England, Russia and Greece. Jens Petersen (1829-1905) - Danish photographer, active in Odense from 1857 and in Copenhagen from 1863. Purveyor to the Royal Danish Court from 1864 onwards. In 1881, his son Charles Bendix Petersen (1860 - 1927) became a partner and in 1889 Jens Petersen retired and handed over the business to his son who in 1906 sold the business to Christian Reinau. Hills & Saunders was one of the leading Victorian photographic firms, started as a partnership between Robert Hills & John Henry Saunders. They were social photographers with studios at different times in: London (society), Harrow & Eton & Rugby (locations of leading schools), Oxford & Cambridge (leading universities), Aldershot & Sandhurst (army). They were successful (photographers e.g. to the royal family), but ultimately unsuccessful at a business level with a number of branches failing and only their two main school branches (Harrow & Eton) continuing well into the 20th Century. Antoine Schier & Otto Schoefft, Photographer, Antoine Schier, was an Austrian photographer (Vienna) who seems to spend most of his career in Alexandria (Egypt), from 1863-1865, associated with the Hungarian photographer Otto Schoefft (Pest 1833-Cairo around 1895/1900). Their photo cards, generally in French, carry on the front (left or right), "Schier & Schoefft" and on the back, "SS - Schier & Schoefft - in Alexandria". Rabending & Monckhoven, Emil Rabending (1823-1886) was born in Erfurt, worked as a painter from 1852-1856 in Frankfurt. In 1856 he opened his first photographer's studio in Vienna, until around 1859 he collaborated with D.W. Schmid, from 1867 to 1868 worked with D. Ch. E. v. Monckhoven. In Vienna he introduces the colouring of salted paper prints and retouching on the negative. He sells many visitor cards with portraits of the imperial family. He gets a medal at the international photography exhibition held in Berlin in 1865. The service he prepares for the Hungarian coronation of the empress Elizabeth is famous: Sissi was already posing at the end of 1866 in the Vienna studio, with the dress adorned with pearls and the crown on her head, according to the address placed on the card of the studio closed at the end of 1866. In 1870 she assumed the title of Hofphotograph, court photographer. Ludwig Angerer (August 15, 1827 – May 12, 1879) was an Austrian photographer who founded the first photo studio in Vienna and was appointed as court photographer by Emperor Franz Joseph I. He is also known for taking some of the earliest photographs of Bucharest. Born in Malacka in the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Malacky, Slovakia), the son of a forester, Angerer studied pharmacy and chemistry at the Royal University of Pest. Starting 1848, for two years, he was a pharmacist apprentice, after which, at the age of 23, he gained a license in pharmacy, with the title of magister. Between 1850 and 1854, he worked as a pharmacist in Vienna and Graz. On March 13, 1854, Angerer joined the army, becoming a military pharmacist at the Military Medicine Department and in 1856, he came to Bucharest with the Austrian occupation troops, working at the field hospital of the Austrian troops. During the two years he spent in Bucharest, apart from his pharmacist duties, during his spare time, Angerer practiced photography, taking some of the earliest photos of Bucharest, showing parts of the city before they were redeveloped during the late 19th century. After the Austrian troops retreated in March 1857, Angerer returned to Vienna, where, a year later (on April 13, 1858), he resigned from the Army to focus on photography, opening his own studio. Just two years later, on December 24, 1860, he became the photographer of the Imperial Court in Vienna. Fratelli Alinari photographers, Photographic firm, the oldest in the world, based in Florence, with outlets in Rome, Naples, Milan. Founded in 1852 by Leopoldo Alinari (1832-1865), joined two years later by his brothers Romualdo (1830-1890) and Giuseppe (1836-1890). After Leopoldo's death his brothers continued the business, and after their death Leopoldo's son Vittorio (1859-1932) took over. Vittorio sold the business in 1920 but it continued trading under the Fratelli Alinari name (Fratelli Alinari I.D.E.A., or Instituto di Edizioni Artistiche). In 1985 opening of the Museo della Storia della Fotografia Fratelli Alinari (later Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia). Antonio Sorgato was born in Padua on September 5, 1825, grandson of the engraver and miniaturist Antonio Maria, he attended the school of painting directed by the painter Vincenzo Gazzotto, but soon began the profession of photographer / daguerreotype artist. He opens his first studio in Padua and, in 1856, after being awarded at the Venetian Industrial Exposition, he moves to Venice, where he inaugurates an atelier in San Zaccaria in Campiello del Vin. Sorgato dedicates himself in particular to the portrait. Appreciated not only for his high technical knowledge but also for his artistic sense, the photographer has been awarded several times in national and international exhibitions. The photographer was also awarded a bronze medal at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1867 where he exhibited thirty large full-length paintings and several others in half-length. Thanks to the success obtained, he opened new ateliers in Bologna and Modena in 1870. In 1877 he took over from Giovanni Nascimbeni in the management of the photographic studio in Udine, where he joined Sennen Brusadini who will also carry out the function of director. Lock & Whitfield photographers, London Brighton. Samuel Lock was an artist who in the early 1850s was converting talbotype portraits into painted miniatures. In September 1856, he joined forces with George Whitfield, who had recently opened a photographic portrait studio on Regent Street in London. The firm established a branch studio on Kings Road, Brighton in 1864. Charles Reutlinger Photographe Paris. Charles Reutlinger was a German-French photographer (1816 – 1888). He discovered photography in 1839. He is the founder of one of the most prominent Parisian photographic establishments, Reutlinger Studios, which operated from 1850 to 1937, at 33 boulevard Saint-Martin 1. The family photographic business was founded in Paris by Charles Reutlinger, and the studio became famous for its portraits of the actors, artists, musicians, composers, opera singers and ballet dancers of the period. The women of shows form the main part of his models. He is a member of the French Photography Society. He won a first prize at the Universal Exhibition of 1867. In 1880, Charles handed over the studio to his brother, Emile Reutlinger. Madame Jeanne Marthe Hermann. Little is known about the widow of photographer Hermann, to whom she succeeded in a studio located in Paris. Her husband died in the early 1890s, but Jeanne Marthe had worked with him for a long time. She had specialized in portraits of children. After the death of her husband, she will sign her portraits "Veuve Hermann". In 1902, she was appointed as an academy officer and then as a public education officer in 1909. A photographer but also a musician, in 1904 she composed a series of waltzes "called to delight music lovers". The "widow Hermann" worked in her workshop at Chaussée d'Utin at least until the early 1910s. Stanislas Charles Zwierzynski was born on July 15, 1859 in Czetochowa (Poland) and from young age emigrated to France. He was naturalized French on October 4, 1893. Under the name of Stanislas, he had a successful career as a photographer in Paris where he worked in five workshops. On June 2, 1887, Ernest Feret gave him the "Rivoli Photography" located at 33 of this street. (1) Some portraits are signed Feret & Stanislas which indicates that the two men worked together for a while. François dit Emile Graffe was one of the main French portrait photographers of the Universal International Exhibition of 1900. He was associated for a period with the Greek photographer Solon Vathis.