GRAND DUKE MICHAEL ALEXANDROVICH AND COUNTESS BRASOVA

细节

GRAND DUKE MICHAEL ALEXANDROVICH AND COUNTESS BRASOVA
A collection of five small oblong family photograph albums containing approximately 1,050 images showing the life of the family in various locations, circa 1910-1923, various bindings slightly (worn); together with an oblong octavo album containing 27 carte de visite portraits by Bergomasco and others with French manuscript identification and 40 carte de visite by William Carrick of Russian types, in a papier- maché binding by the Vishniakov factory, the upper cover with a view of Brasovo (the interior loose); and another album with 22 portraits of the Russian Imperial and Danish Royal families, by Bergomasco, E. Hohlenberg of Copenhagen and others, in leather and velvet album, the upper cover applied with a gilt-metal and enamel escutcheon (spine worn and loose);
GRAND DUKE NIKOLAI NIKOLAIEVICH
Six photographs of the Grand Duke at the Supreme Headquarters, Baranovichi, one showing the Grand Duke with the Emperor and other officers and five of the Grand Duke on various occasions and signed on the reverse by the photographer B.P. Andreev (13)

来源

Sotheby's London, April 7 1989, lots 206, 207, 210, 211 and 214.

拍品专文

An interesting collection of intimate images, very few of which are identified. A few are dated 1910 showing Greendown, Stutgart and Cannes, 1911 Volga and Simbirsk, 1922 Moscow and 1923 Potsdam. Two of the albums show life at Knebworth with the Imperial couple, many of the Countess's daughter 'Tata', some with her governess, Miss Rata.

Two of the albums in similar maroon leather appear to have been compiled by the Countess herself, showing the family in the summer of 1913 and the autumn and following months at Knebworth, which they rented from 1st September 1913 and where they remained until the outbreak of the First World War.

The three folio albums could have been compiled by the governess. One photograph is signed 'Edith Bennett' and dated 15th September 1917. Rosemary and Donald Crawford in their biography of the couple do not give Miss Rata's name, but mention that she married Mr. Bennett, the Grand Duke's head groom, on August 1914.