"Say Gorgonzola!" Mopping Up

Yes, well, as the title may suggest, this is just a pile of photos I've recently discovered and want to share with the nation, complete with my (haphazard) dating system (called A Brain) and comments as per usual. So, from 1910 last post, here we zoom right back to...um...well here really:




I think that this was taken in about 1850, but for reasons I'll tell you in a minute. First I'd better explain the photo, or rather lack of a head in Queen Victoria's case. This is because she closed her eyes at the wrong moment and so a pretty unflattering photo was the result, so she rubbed out her face using her thumb. As for the childrens, they are as follows: Alice (it could be Vicky, but you'll see why I think it's her in a minute), Bertie, the Queen, Helena (head on Victoria's knee), Vicky, Affie. So ta and da about that one and let's skedaddle onto the next one, taken in the same year.



Before anything, I just have to say how much I love Bertie's expression in this photo. There, done, now the explanation about the first photo. I think that Vicky looks like the one I've labeled Vicky in the top one (which is why I did it) and Alice looks like Alice (as opposed to Wordsworth or someone.) Again, Helena appears to have collapsed on her mother's knee, but this time Affie's noticed and looks confused. No danger of any unflattering eye-closing in this one for the queen, as a bonnet's obscured her face completely from view. Left to right: Alice, Helena, Affie, the Queen, Bertie, Vicky. Onwards we go then.



I had to include this one, as it's gone down in my head's history as "The White Top Hat Photo" and I don't know why, but it just makes me laugh. I think it's a combination of the hat, stance and Albert's grumpy expression. I'd date this at about 1854, but it could be a few years earlier...or later...well that was good dating wasn't it? Anyway, on to the photo that made me sing with happiness when I found it.




Hahahahaaa!!! It's the famous degeurrotype I've heard about so many times in books, but never actually seen, as all my searches were in vain. However, it suddenly sprang from nowhere when I was looking for something completely different and very nearly made my day. Anyway, I was very excited and then my new book arrived from Amazon. With this photo in. To spare anyone else out there the angst of trawling all the photo websites they can think of looking, here it is. This is, of course, the photo taken before Vicky (the Princess Royal's) wedding. According to the queen, she was so nervous and shook so much that she was blurred on the final picture. Vicky looks understandably nervous (she was only 17 and younger than me, me who can hardly walk down a corridor without crashing into walls) but Fritz (the Crown Prince of Prussia) was a good man and they both adored each other. Well, let's dash through the snow to 1859 (this is 1858 by the way.)



Yet another 1850s photo where Albert looks fed up with life in general and Victoria isn't facing the camera. Again, the shrubbery has excelled itself and is almost dominating the photo. This is, I think, part of the set that Lady Day took in the Isle of Wight (see another photo thread for one of the other photos in the set) in 1859. There isn't a lot more to say about this one to be honest, but again it's domestic and rustic and...other words ending in "tic".



In the same Set of Dreams, we have this one of Victoria on her own. She looks pretty distracted by something (Lord Palmerston playing 'I've Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts' on the harmonica perhaps?) but it gives us a good view of her dress. Another relatively pretty one (though I don't know the actual colour) and isn't as enormously crinoliney as the others (yes spellcheck, it's a word.) Well shall we continue? Very well, on we go.



Here we have Victoria and her youngest daughter, Beatrice. As this is 1859, 'Baby' would have been about two, which again gives us food for height thought. It looks to me as if the Queen's telling Beatrice to keep still, as she's balanced on a rather groovy chair (all right, probably without the "groovy") and an even gaudier carpet. This is, again, one of a set, which I didn't know when I first saw it, but (as you'll see) I do know now. Well, let's go to the next one.



Et so we come to le end of this particular "Mopping Up" post, but if I find anything else, expect something to come soon. Now this photo was also taken in 1859 at the same time as the one above it. I had never seen this photo before and I rather like it, despite the fact that both of them look pretty scared, which is very excusable when you notice the Giant Pork Pie creeping out from behind the Queen and the really, really uneven floor (could it be carpet-covered lava?) Well no, it couldn't, otherwise they wouldn't still be sitting there (stop talking brain, stop typing fingers.)

And there we have it folks, or rather "folk". This may be the end of this particular foray through time, but they'll certainly be more, starting (I think) with a selection of dresses and then...well who knows? The world is my lobster as far as this blog's concerned (yes, yes I know, but I don't like oysters.)

Toodle-oo for now.
: )