The earliest era of photograph collecting in Central Europe is largely unexplored. One of the few pioneering collectors we know about was the Austrian chancellor of state Klemens W.N.L., Prince von Metternich-Winneburg. As this article demonstrates, in the early 1840s he acquired dozens of photogenic drawings and calotypes from W.H.F. Talbot and incorporated them into his extensive collections at Kynžvart Castle (West Bohemia). Most of the series is lost, but drawing on recently recognized evidence and documents – starting with Talbot’s correspondence and period catalogues of the Kynžvart collection and ending with later reproductions and the research interests of the historians and collectors Egon Corti and Erich Stenger – we can form a detailed idea of the origin, form, content and development of the series. We can also better understand Metternich’s interest in photograph collecting and his role in the early development of paper photography in this part of Europe.
I hope this might draw more attention also to those who helped Talbot to disseminate the first specimens and knowledge of his inventions, to the first collectors of photogenic drawings and calotypes outside the UK, and to photo historians and collectors who helped to preserve Talbot’s experimental and presentation pieces throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.
You can access the full version through this link: https://academic.oup.com/jhc/article/35/2/379/6595441?guestAccessKey=26a0bb84-c2ca-4907-8f0c-d21820355ef0
Petra Trnkova, Metternich’s collection of Talbot’s photographs: A lost album as a virtually material being, Journal of the History of Collections 35, July 2023, pp. 379–394.
