Some years later, the Prince of Wales by W. & D. Downey of 61 Ebury Street (Eaton Square) in London; the mount appears to belong to the branch in Newcastle-on-Tyne, located at 9 Eldon Square. The firm’s founders were the brothers William Downey (1829-1915) and Daniel Downey (1831-1881); they occupied the Eldon Square address from 1863, and William opened the London branch at 57 and 61 Ebury Street in 1872.
Princess Alexandra of Denmark (1844-1925), who married Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (from 1901 King Edward VII), Queen Victoria’s eldest son, in 1863.
Carte de visite by the Danish court photographer [Peter Ludvig] Rudolf Striegler (1816-1876).
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (1841-1910), from 1901 King Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India, etc. Carte de visite by Moritz Unna (1811-1871), who bought the photography studio of [Peter Ludwig] Rudolf Striegler (1816-1876) in 1863. Striegler introduced the CDV to Denmark in 1860, and in 1861 he was the Danish court photographer.
On the reverse of the image, someone has written the date 1869; another hand appears to identify the sitter as the Crown Prince of England in 1870. The image is problematic, though, as it seems to date from several years before, at a time when the prince had not yet grown the beard associated with most of his adult life.
He married Princess Alexandra of Denmark, the daughter of King Christian IX, in 1863, and thereafter made annual visits to Copenhagen to stay with his wife’s parents. The CDV could belong to the period immediately after his marriage, when Unna had just bought Striegler’s studio.
Unna had a rather sad life, failing to succeed as a painter, a bookseller, and, finally, a photographer. (He died in obscurity, after a period of illness that likely affected his photography business.)
