When You Wish Upon a Tsar – Romanov Photos at Bonhams Book Sale

LONDON.- A collection of 19th century photographic portraits of Russian Royalty goes under the hammer at Bonhams Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photographs sale on 8 June in London (estimate £2,000 – 4,000).

Many of the portraits are of the family of Tsar Nicholas I who reigned from 1825 to 1855 and of the family of his successor Alexander II (also known as ‘The Tsar Liberator’) who ruled from 1855 until his assassination in 1881.

Among the most notable items are a finely hand-coloured cabinet card of Alexander II and his wife Maria Alexandrovna; a hand coloured card of the future Alexander III as Tsarevitch; pictures of Alexander III and his wife Tsarina Maria Fedorovna who fled to Great Britain after the revolution and then settled in her native Denmark where she died in 1928; and a photograph of Alexander II lying in state.

A picture of Alexander III and his wife Tsarina Maria Fedorovna who fled to Great Britain after the revolution and then settled in her native Denmark where she died in 1928

The collection also features member of other European Royal Houses including Queen Victoria and member of her family; Prince Carol, Domnitor of Rumania; and Nikola, Prince of Montenegro as well as prominent politicians and writers of the day and the famous sopranos, Adelina Patti, Pauline Lucca and Christina Nilsson.

Separately, the sale includes a photograph of Tsar Nicholas II taken during his Coronation Procession in 1896 (£500-700) and a large photograph of the Tsar and Tsarina from 1905 standing on the balcony of an unidentified building.