"Say Cheese!" Part 3

I'm finally back again, with another small pile of photos, this time from 1862 until...um...sort of later. Well you look and decide.

First up, a terribly sad one of Queen Victoria in 1862:



Some of you might bellow: "Wheeeeere is Albert then, eh?" Well, pray do note the INTENSE mourning and her terribly sad expression. Yes, that's right, Albert died on 14th December, 1861 (for a wonderful account of this sad occasion, see the blog Writer of Queens and search for it there) of typhoid. Understandably, Victoria went into a state of prolonged mourning (when I say prolonged, I mean 39 years...) and because pretty much a recluse. However, she continued to have photographs taken of herself and this (unless I am very much mistaken) is one of the first. It's interesting to note how surprisingly young she looks here compared to other photographs the year before. Lots of people at the time said how childlike she looked in mourning clothes (at first anyway) and I think this is a terribly poignant picture.

Now, I'm having a stab at guessing dates again with this one (and there are two similar ones, so this took major effort.) Firstly this one:



I think that this one comes from 1863ish, as the small child is Victoria of Hesse (older sister of the ill-fated Alix) and she was born in 1863. Victoria's still wearing her enormous bonnety hat thing, so it must still be the early 1860s. Well this looks suspiciously like Osborne House (not that I've been there, but this summer... fingers crossed) from the colour of the wall (see the one of V&A at Osborne in the last post) and the fact that it's the place that Victoria escaped to after Albert died. Well, another interesting fact here is that we're looking at Prince Phillip's grandmother as a baby (she later married Prince Louis of Battenburg and I'll go on about the Battenburgers later I should think.) Well, onto the next hard to date one methinks.




This is Victoria again with a grandson this time, namely Eddy, Duke of Clarence (well, Albert Victor, but there were so many Alberts by then that everyone called him Eddy.) I think this is a really nice photo, don't you? That sofa though...well I'm glad these are in black and white, that's all I'll say... Victoria made a point of never looking at the camera, but this one's particularly nice, as both of them look intrigued with the other. : ) I think this one's 1864, as that's when Eddy was born and I don't think he looks more than one (mind you, I share Victoria's opinion of babies - I sometimes applaud her description of them as "froglike" before the age of four months or so, so I wouldn't be the best person to age a baby.) Well I think that's that just about wrapped up - on to the next photo of confusion...



Well I think I'd put this one as 1864 as well, due to Victoria's clothing (that infernal bonnet/tea towel thing) and the fact that I've just been told. Also, the boy is Willy, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II and he was born in 1859, so I think he looks about four or five here. Well, I'd never seen this photo (or the others) before, so I hope they're new to you as well. I don't think this one's as sweet as the other two, especially as Victoria seems to have inherited Albert's laser eye-beams from the last post and is trying them out on Willy's hat and he doesn't look exactly thrilled to be there either. Onto the next one maestro (well, me in a different hat.)



Now, I might've got this one really, really wrong, but I reckon that this one's a little later than the other two for a few reasons. Namely the lack of the big black bonnet, replaced with the white widow's cap and veil we're used to seeing on Victoria. She's also wearing the order ribbon (of the garter I should think), as well as gloves and a fan, which constitutes to dressing up a bit back then. Colouring the photo gives us an eye-watering view of the carpet and some rather pretty flowers and, in the background a...well it looks like a portable conservatory view, but I doubt it somehow. It also removes some of the detail, particularly on her face, which is why this one's quite hard to date. I hadn't seen it before, though, so in it goes. :)


Well I've got a ton of other photos, but it's getting dark now and my lamp's committed bulb suicide, so it's quite dark and my eyes hurt, so I'm off now, but I'll be back tomorrow or the weekend with more right up to Victoria's death. See you all then (well, one person anyway :))

}: )> A viking. Yay.