"Say Cheese!" Part 2

I'm back again with yet more photos that most people will think are very boring and dull, but I think they're interesting, so I'm going to inflict them upon the general public anyway.

First, let's toddle back to the wonder that is 1859. Hoorah.



Right, this is a photo taken to celebrate Queen Victoria's 40th birthday...so she's pointedly ignoring the camera and seems to be trying to hypnotise Beatrice...
Yes, well, from left to right we have: Leopold (future Duke of Albany), Louise (future Duchess of Argyll), Victoria, Arthur (future Duke of Connaught and looking frankly disgusted with life in general), Alice (I think, it's a bit hard to tell with that hat...), Vicky, Beatrice (future Princess Henry of Battenberg), Albert and Helena (future wife of Christian of Schleswig-Holstein.) Well that's that bit done I suppose and now for the comments: um... well I quite like the parasols...and Leopold's socks...but oh well, next photo - quick.




Well there are (hopefully) two photos here for you to peruse, both obviously from the same sitting...thing...whatever it's called. It's 1860 now (not literally, I mean in the photos) so V&A (yay!) are both 41. Other than that carpet giving me serious eye trouble (thank goodness they're not in colour...) these two are pretty good, pretty normal royal photos of the time (e.g- looking serious, bored or asleep and not dressing up poshly) so some merriment there. Ok, the right hand one. Well despite the fact that Victoria looks as is she's dozed off and Albert's trying to wake her with lazer eye beams (that unfortunately don't show up in early photography) I think that this photo's...all right...nothing wonderful but very nice and domestic and rather middle class. The second photo too is pretty much the same, but this time they've swapped places (please note the difference in height :)) Victoria seems to have gone to sleep standing up again and Albert looks pretty cross that his Massive Book from earlier's been swapped for something of a far more sensible size. Rather nice dress though (for the times anyway) and another general picture of marital bliss (albeit one with lots of sleeping and book-related anguish.) Time to zoom on to another posing....pose...





Another from the same series, but this one looks far more...dynamic (well everyone's awake for a start) and slightly less rigidly posed. It seems that the contents of the Small Book is rather alarming judging by their expressions and the fact that Victoria's abandoned her sewing to listen. Not a lot more to say about this one, but it's still rather nice and domestic. :) Next one please.



Well another 1860 one, but with a few more stripes. According to some people back then who coloured this photo, the predominant colour is purple. Mmmm. Well, this one certainly gives you a very good idea of how small Victoria was. Especially when you know that she's standing on a raised platform (useful things crinolines) and Albert's leaning on a pillar. Anyway, that's one very funky waistcoat and (as long as it stays in that century) a reasonably nice dress (if you like what looks like gingham stripes of purple anyway.) You'll see the colours in the next picture, which is below (as opposed to over there, turning left at Cromer and taking the third bridleway on the right to finally reach a tree, in which there is a small metal Paddington Bear lunchbox containing the next photo...but I digress.)



Well here's yet another photo of them both looking thoroughly miserable, though it would be a very nice one if they looked even a tiny bit happier. You can see the lovely colours here too and the fact that stripes were evidently all the rage (in the palace/castle at least.) Well, I think we should move on to the next (very famous) one now.



Now this one, taken either in 1859 or 1860, depending on which book you believe, was taken at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight (where I desperately want to go in the summer) by someone called Lady Day. No one has any idea who on earth she was, but she took this photo (along with a few others which I couldn't find when I was searching yesterday.) Well this photo, I think, pretty sums up the 1850s and 1860 with regards to V&A (yay!) Just look at Victoria's face: adoration methinks. Not to mention the somewhat incredible top hat that I've just noticed (and the attention-seeking shrubbery on the far left.) Well I really like this photo and I'll leave you to look at it for a bit longer. I'll be waiting. That sounds creepy, but it's not meant to. :)



Ah yes, now I found this photo the other day, but it didn't have any information with it, so I've been trying to date it (I'm not very good, so if you know better than me, please tell me when it was taken.) I think it was taken (if it's a photo...it could be a coloured in photo or just a very good drawing...oh well, I'll try and work out when it was drawn or made or whatever anyway) in 1861 between March and December. My reasons are thus (hee hee, clever words) firstly, Victoria's wearing a black dress, indicating mourning, but she's also wearing jewelry, a crown and all that jazz, which implies that it can't be after Albert died, as she wore more black and a headdress thing (see the next photo post.) Therefore, I think it's after the Duchess of Kent died (Victoria's mother by the way) but before Albert died. I think it's before a court function (which explains the crown, order of the garter ribbon [I think], the fan and the rather low-cut dress) but that's about all I can guess really. It's quite a nice photo/drawing though isn't it? On to the final two then.




Very interesting one now, as this is the first photo in which Victoria properly looks like a Queen and rather splendid as well. I think that the dress is absolutely INCREDIBLE, not to mention the wonderful crown. Well it's 1861 and only a few months before Albert's death (another box of Kleenex required) and I do actually really like this photo. We're used to seeing Victoria in the Jubilee photos in all her finery, but that's not for another 26 years for the Golden one and 36 for the Diamond Jubilee. So here we have a relatively young Victoria (she's still only forty two) and that very nearly concludes this part of the photo post, but we've got just one more.



And finally, here's the whole family. Now, those of you with even worse eyesight than me will probably also be able to spot the fact that this really isn't just one photo - it's lots of them cut out and stuck together to make a family photo (which explains the casually scattered plinths and columns hanging around.) Before you start yelling "Swizz! O tempora! O mores! I want my money back, I'm leaving this blog, never to return," let me tell you that this was normal (and understandable) back then, as it was very hard not only to fit eleven people and all those crinolines into one shot, but with nine children, it was also pretty difficult to gather them all together for a photo. As Bertie was away in the army around this time, Affie was sailing to distant shores in the Navy, Vicky had married Fritz and was living in Berlin, Albert was generally away on business and...well you get the picture. This was therefore far easier than dragging people from all corners of the globe to pose stiffly for a few minutes and then send them all back again. Left to right: Helena (I think), Vicky, Bertie, Albert, Leopold, Beatrice, Louise, Victoria, Affie, Arthur, Alice.

There we are, another post nicely wrapped up in sparkly silver paper and a bow. Just one more thing, not related to anything except the name Vikipedia: hello Shaminder if you're reading this...oh yes and it's currently Obama time. ;)