A small memento - sapphire ring, Queen Victoria's coronation gift to one of her train bearers

 

This sapphire and diamond ring is engraved inside the band with Queen Victoria's cypher and the date of the Coronation in 1838, and was given to one of her eight train bearers who assisted her on that momentous occasion. It no longer seems to be recorded to whom the particular ring was originally given, but it was added to the royal collection by Queen Mary in 1925. And while I haven't found any mention of this on the Royal Collection's website, on the inside of the ring, behind the central sapphire, there appears to be something of a translucent "window"... and would that be, to make the gift that much more personal, a tiny bit of the queen's hair behind?

Queen Victoria Receiving the Sacrament at her Coronation, 28 June 1838, by Charles Robert Leslie, 1838-39.

Charles Robert Leslie's painting shows the Queen receiving the Sacrament towards the latter part of her Coronation. Queen Victoria's half-sister Feodora, Princess of Leiningen, wrote to the Queen later that year that the moment depicted in the painting "was the most touching of the whole ceremony, and one that is always before me; human greatness bowing before greatness above, I saw many eyes that were filled with tears; and I shall never forget that picture."

Queen Victoria was delighted with the painting too. She thought "the group of my youthful trainbearers is excessively pretty.". She wrote to Princess Feodora that it was "the loveliest picture of the coronation you can imagine; it is to be for me, and is a great deal smaller than Hayter's picture [see below] …. He has got me so like … and all the others, he has got so like, I am charmed with it'. It was praised by contemporaries and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1843.

Queen Victoria described her train bearers in her Journal, as "all dressed alike and beautifully" in white satin and silver tissue, with pink roses in their hair.

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Coronation of Queen Victoria in Westminster, Abbey 28 June 1838’, by Sir George Hayter, 1839-40.

Sir George Hayter's painting captures the moment in the coronation when, after the crowning, "the people with loud and repeated shouts, will cry 'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN': and immediately the Peers and Peeresses present will put on their Coronets" - in the queen's words, "a most beautiful and impressive moment." The queen is portrayed seated on the Coronation Chair, wearing the Imperial State Crown and holding in her right hand the Sceptre with the Cross and in her left the Sceptre with the Dove. 

Hayter was commissioned to record the scene less than a week before the coronation itself. The finished work depicts sixty-four of those participating or merely present during the ceremony, based on private sittings with the individuals in the two years following the event. The artist's family modelled the gowns and robes for him; his daughter Louisa modeled for the queen's hands.

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The eight train bearers - who all seemed to find highly decorative - are nonetheless not terribly well represented in either of these coronation paintings. In Leslie's, only six appear - one almost entirely obscured - while in Hayter's a mere three make the cut.

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The coronation day, from Queen Victoria's diary:

"I was awoke at four o'clock by the guns in the Park, and could not get much sleep afterwards on account of the noise of the people, bands, etc., etc. Got up at seven, feeling strong and well; the Park presented a curious spectacle, crowds of people up Constitution Hill, soldiers, Bands, etc.

"At ten I got into the State Coach with the Duchess of Sutherland and Lord Albemarle and we began our Progress. It was a fine day, and the crowds of people exceeded what I have ever seen; many as there were the day I went to the City, it was nothing, nothing to the multitudes, the millions of my loyal subjects, who were assembled in every spot to witness the Procession. Their good humour and excessive loyalty was beyond everything, and I really cannot say how proud I feel to be the Queen of such a Nation. I was alarmed at times for fear that the people would be crushed and squeezed on account of the tremendous rush and pressure.

Detail from a commemorative panorama - over 3 metres (almost ten feet) long - showing the procession within Westminster Abbey and identifying the key figures.

"I reached the Abbey amid deafening cheers at a little after half-past eleven; I first went into a robing-room quite close to the entrance where I found my eight train-bearers: Lady Caroline Lennox, Lady Adelaide Paget, Lady Mary Talbot, Lady Fanny Cowper, Lady Wilhelmina Stanhope, Lady Anne Fitzwilliam, Lady Mary Grimston and Lady Louisa Jenkinson – all dressed alike and beautifully in white satin and silver tissue with wreaths of silver corn-ears in front, and a small one of pink roses around the plait behind, and pink roses in the trimmings of the dresses.

"Then followed all the various things; and last (of those things) the Crown being placed on my head – which was, I must own, a most beautiful impressive moment; all the Peers and Peeresses put on their coronets at the same instant. My excellent Lord Melbourne, who stood very close to me throughout the whole ceremony, was completely overcome at this moment, and very much affected; he gave me such a kind, and I may say fatherly look. The shouts, which were very great, the drums, the trumpets, the firing of the guns, all at the same instant, rendered the spectacle most imposing. The Archbishop had (most awkwardly) put the ring on the wrong finger, and the consequence was that I had the greatest difficulty to take it off again, which I at last did with great pain. At about half-past four I re-entered my carriage, the Crown on my head, and the Sceptre and Orb in my hands, and we proceeded the same way as we came – the crowds if possible having increased. The enthusiasm, affection, and loyalty were really touching, and I shall remember this day as the Proudest of my life! I came home at a little after six, really not feeling tired. At eight we dined."

Quand il n'y a pas assez de souffle.... - two daughters of Louis Philippe, by Louis Hersent, 1829

 

Born almost exactly a year apart, after their brother Ferdinand Philippe, the duc d'Orléans, the two sisters were the eldest of their parent's ten children, eight of whom survived to adulthood. The portraits were painted a year before the July Revolution of 1830, the event that raised their father to power, and made their close-knit family France's royal family.

Louise d'Orléans, before her marriage styled mademoiselle de Chartres.

Louise d'Orléans (Louise-Marie Thérèse Charlotte Isabelle; 3 April 1812, Palermo - 11 October 1850, Ostend) was the second child and eldest daughter of Louis Philippe and Marie-Amélie, from 1830 to 1848 King and Queen of the French. In 1832 she became the first Queen of the Belgians as the second wife of King Leopold I. The marriage was a political arrangement between France and Belgium and Louise was unhappy to leave France and her family. Of a shy nature and a delicate constitution, she had little of a public role as queen. The couple had four children, three surviving to adulthood, but she died of tuberculosis at the age of only thirty-eight.

Marie d'Orleans, before her marriage styled mademoiselle de Valois.

Princess Marie of Orléans (Christine Caroline Adélaïde Françoise Léopoldine; 12 April 1813, Palermo - 6 January 1839, Pisa) was the third child and second eldest daughter of Louis Philippe and Marie-Amélie. A talented sculptor and artist - she was a student of Ary Scheffer - she had her own studio installed in the Tuileries Palace. She was described as a lively character, interested in both society and politics. In 1837, she married Prince Alexander of Württemberg. A member of the cadet branch of a not very prestigious princely family, her new husband was nevertheless closely related to most of the crowned heads of Europe. They had one child together. But only six months later, after traveling to Italy in hopes that the climate would bolster her rapidly faltering health, she died of tuberculosis; she was only twenty-five.

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These two paintings reside somewhere in the collection of the vast, uninhabited palace of Caserta, some twenty-two miles north of Naples. Begun in 1752, the complex - the largest palace erected in Europe during the eighteenth century - was constructed for the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies as their main residence as kings of Naples. At first I wondered what these portraits of two French princesses were doing in an Italian palace, until I remembered that their mother was actually born there; Marie-Amélie was the tenth of eighteen children of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Maria Carolina of Austria. 

The paintings, as seen in these images, look to be extremely dirty, discolored, and much in need of conservation. Hersent was a good painter, and even veiled with grime as they are, disfigured with neglect, the fresh, tender charm of the young girls - Louise was only seventeen, Marie sixteen - is clearly discernable. And to me, the rather wretched state of the portraits somehow adds another note of poignancy to the stories of the sisters, in some strange way aligning with their early deaths. Their youth was never quite lost, then, but buried. The paintings survive, but exist, entombed, in the airless shadows of that vast palace.

Des chambres disparues - images from the Hôtel Maffet Astoria, Cairo, photographs by Bernard Guillot

 

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Bernard Guillot (19 September 1950, Basel - 29 June 2021, Paris), French photographer and painter. A graduate of the l’École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris, he received the Prix Nadar in 2003 for his photo book Le Pavillion blanc. His works are in many private and public collections including the Centre Pompidou, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the American University in Cairo amongst others. He divided his time between France and Egypt. 

Between 1977 and 2003 his work was mainly centered on his life in Egypt, and he came to be particularly inspired by his hotel in Cairo. He obsessively visited and revisited the often bleak and crumbling rooms, capturing images filled with a heavy and mysterious silence, and creating a chronicle of a closed-off world that would soon disappear forever. 

His book of photographs Hôtel Maffet Astoria, Le Caire was published in 1999, followed by Le Pavillon blanc four years later.

Bright ride, dark ride - Austrian imperial carriages, paintings by Johann Erdmann Gottlieb Prestel, circa 1848-51

 

Goldene Imperialwagen (golden imperial carriage) - Court gala carriage with eight-horse train, circa 1851.

Hoftrauer-Galawagen mit Achterzug (court mourning gala carriage with eight-horse train), circa 1848-50.

The two paintings were probably commissioned on behalf of the imperial court's "Office of the Master of the Stables." The carriage shown in the first painting, which in some instances is referred to as a coronation coach, is attended by lackeys and postillions dressed in the so-called "Spanish livery" of black and yellow velvet. This livery, which was only worn on the most important state occasions, has been preserved, along with the horses' harnesses - most of which date back to the eighteenth century - and the coach, itself.

In both paintings can be seen the Imperialzug - a team of eight horses - made up of white Kladruber stallions. The Kladruber (Czech: Starokladrubský kůň) is the oldest Czech horse breed - and one of the world's oldest, having been bred for more than four hundred years - and very rare. Kladrubers have always been bred to be a galakarossier, a heavy type of carriage horse for the court of the House of Habsburg.

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Reicher Krönungswagen "Imperialwagen" (Rich Coronation Carriage "Imperial Carriage"), probably built circa 1735-40 for Emperor Charles VI and later adapted several times. It was only used on the grandest occasions, and was reserved for the emperor, the empress, and the crown prince and princess.

Kaiserlicher Galawagen für die Hoftrauer (Imperial gala carriage for court mourning). The first documented use of this carriage was in 1764. Originally gilded and decorated with allegorical paintings, the carriage was adapted as a gala carriage for court mourning around 1820 by painting it entirely black; the decorative scenes on the carriages body, hidden under the black paint, were only rediscovered in 1930. 

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Johann Erdmann Gottlieb Prestel, "the Younger" (19 April 1804 Frankfurt am Main - 7 May 1885 Mainz), German painter and sculptor, best known for his animal portraits, especially horses; his original plans to work at the Frankfurt Riding School were only shelved due to his obvious artistic talent. The son of a portrait painter and engraver, he was orphaned at the age of eleven. When he was eighteen, he was accepted at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, but he also attended courses in anatomy and veterinary medicine. After completing his studies, he moved to Vienna, where landscape and animal painting played an important role at court and in aristocratic circles. After spending nearly eight years in Italy, he returned to Germany and married in 1841. In 1849 he was summoned to Vienna where he completed many important commissions for Emperor Franz Joseph and the imperial court. Offered prestigious positions by the emperor, he declined them all and returned with his family to Mainz in the early 1860s, where he later died at the age of eighty-one.

Vingt-six dames, trois filles - female portraits

 

Caroline Lefebvre, vicomtesse de Fontanges, by Antoine Vestier, 1787.

Isabella of Portugal, workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, circa 1450.

Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, by Philippe Vignon, circa 1673.

Duchess Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, unknown miniaturist, 1799.

Victoria, Princess Royal, Crown Princess Frederick William of Prussia, by Joseph Hartmann, 1858.

Portrait of a girl aged six holding a book of music, English School,1589.

Mrs. Mary Robinson, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, circa 1783-84.

Study for the above.

Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, by Heinrich von Angeli, 1898.

Portrait of a Lady, traditionally identified as Louise de Lorraine, by Jean de Court (formerly attributed to François Clouet), circa 1570-79.

Matilde Juva Branca, by Francesco Hayez, 1851.

Selina, Lady Skipwith, by Joshua Reynolds, 1787.

Marie Dorothée Renouard, by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein, 1793.

Repòs, by Marisa Roësset Velasco, 1928.

Madame Hurault de Sorbée, née Elisabeth Kastner (called Lisbeth), by Alexandre-François Caminade, circa 1812.

 Princess Charlotte of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria, later Empress Carlota of Mexico, by Jean-François Portaels, 1857.
Her toilette is an interpretation of the regional costume of Brianza; her husband Maximilian was viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia from 1857 to 1859.

Queen Elizabeth I, attributed to George Gower, possibly circa 1567.

 The actress Rachel (née Elisa-Félix) as Catherine the Great in Eugène Scribe's La Czarine, by Edmond-Aimé-Florentin Geffroy, 1855.

Princess Karoline Friederike Wilhelmine of Hesse-Kassel, by Friedrich Bury, 1820.

Elisabeth Alexandrine Maria Berthier, Princess of Wagram, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, circa 1870.

Flora, a portrait of either Vittoria della Rovere from 1639, or of Isabella d'Este from circa 1650-60, by Justus Sustermans.

Tommasina Balbi Cambiaso, by Anton Raphael Mengs, 1771.

Wilhelmine Begas, the artist's wife, by Carl Joseph Begas, 1828.

A young princess (probably Dorothea of Denmark), by Jan Gossaert, circa 1530-32.

Portrait of a lady in green turban, by Aimée Brune-Pagès, 1834.

Anna Maria Vasa, daughter of King Sigismund III of Poland, by Martin Kober, 1596. Three years old in the painting, she died at seven.

Marie-Anne-Éléonore-Félicité le Planquois, by Alexander Roslin, circa 1769.

Creole in a Red Turban, by Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans, circa 1840.

Virginie Lupin, the wife of prefect Achille François Bégé, by Louis Hersent, circa 1825-30.

Maria Leopoldine von Habsburg-Tirol, Holy Roman Empress, by Justus Sustermans, circa 1647-50.