The photography of a Crown Princess in Egypt

[Victoria, Queen of Sweden]. Vom Nil. [Twelve collotype plates].

€ 1,500.00

A heretofore undocumented publication of twelve photographs of Egypt by the future Queen Victoria of Sweden herself, otherwise only published for private circulation in Victoria's book on the subject: "Vom Nil. Tagebuchblätter während des Aufenthalts in Egypten im Winter 1890/91".

The pictorial cover of the case housing these plates is very similar to the design of the only edition of the book (itself quite uncommon), and the plates may easily be identified as those from the queen's collection, as both the photographs themselves and the variant spellings of their captions perfectly match those published there.

Though numerous professional photos were taken on the royal trip, Victoria was a passionate and skilled amateur photographer, and chose her own photographs to complement her writing when she published "Vom Nil" for family and friends. Examples of her photography can be found throughout the book, but in this unrecorded publication these photographs have been presented as the entire focus, above all else. Plates include "Beduinen-Mädchen", "Cameel mit Zuckerrohr", a group of locals flying a flag "Bei Kalabsche", "Blick auf den Cataract", and many more.

Born a princess of Baden, Victoria's marriage to Gustaf V of Sweden was purely political, and designed to strengthen ties between German and Swedish courts. It was not a particularly happy match, and the visit to Egypt was intended to strengthen a marriage that had effectively broken down, as well as to allow Victoria to recover from the difficult birth of her third son. While the reunification was unsuccessful, Victoria began a lifelong interest in Egyptian antiquities; her large personal collection was later donated to the University of Uppsala, where it can still be found today.

Not listed in Kainbacher and with no copies of this set of prints on OCLC nor any record at auction of the same.