A rare nineteenth-century Carte-de-Visite (CDV) royal portrait of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (1853–1884), the youngest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, photographed by royal photographer Jabez Hughes. The young Prince is portrayed standing elegantly in a suit, resting one hand upon an elaborately carved studio cabinet while holding a cane in the other. A chair stands beside him and a top hat rests upon the cabinet, creating a carefully arranged Victorian studio composition. Prince Leopold George Duncan Albert was the eighth child and youngest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Born in 1853, he suffered from haemophilia, the hereditary condition subsequently associated with Queen Victoria's descendants and several European royal houses. In 1881 he was created Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow. He died in 1884 at only thirty years of age. The reverse carries the original photographer's backmark: “ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO MR. JABEZ HUGHES, PHOTOGRAPHER TO THE QUEEN AND H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES REGINA HOUSE, RYDE, ISLE OF WIGHT.” The Isle of Wight connection is particularly appropriate given the proximity of Osborne House, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's private royal residence, and Hughes's direct association with photographing members of the Royal Family. The reverse also bears an early manuscript identification, “Prince Leopold, ” together with a further, more faded manuscript inscription below. An appealing royal CDV combining Prince Leopold, the son of Queen Victoria, an early royal photographic portrait and Jabez Hughes's documented status as Photographer to the Queen and the Prince of Wales.
Auction 01: Auction 01 – Historical Letters, Documents & Autographs — Melis Antiques & Art