I bought this pair of C de Vs in a bits-and-pieces shop (in Australia). They show Edward, Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandria, his fiancee, and were taken in Paris in 1863 by E. Desmaisons. They both are in good condition except for some minor foxing. The identical Carte of the Prince is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery (London).
Are they unusual or are they just the usual type of mass-produced, collectable C deVs of the time?
Comments
Agree with Michael - for example (and a colourised version of Princess) see Past to Present : Photos by E. DESMAISONS (past-to-present.com)
These are album fillers, and fairly common. They are not portraits from life, as you can see. Desmaison produced a lot of noble/notable/royal couples.
"Album fillers"? An appropriate if dismaying descripter of what commercial photographers then and later saw the opportunity of churning out cartes de visites, postcards and photos for the voracious appetite of indifidual folk and families collecting, buying, competing, sharing and sending each other, sometimes daily via cheap ha'ppenny post, postcards and CDVs that filled up beautifully bookbound and decorated albums many delineating family histories in dreamy sepia faded-edged pictorial memorialisings ~ albums now voraciously sought and bought at auction then torn and ripped apart of any family history content all for a single postcard or carte de visite's individual resaleable potential.