Bidspirit 拍卖 | Empress Frederick – Victoria, Princess

Empress Frederick – Victoria, Princess Royal, Eldest Daughter of Queen Victoria – With Her Six Children, Including Kaiser Wilhelm II, Prince Henry and Princess Charlotte – German Postcard Mailed in the Year of Her Death, 1901 - An early German photographic postcard depicting Victoria, Princess Royal (1840–1901), eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, widow of German Emperor Frederick III and subsequently known as Empress Frederick (Kaiserin Friedrich), surrounded by six of her children. The contemporary printed caption reads: “I. Maj. die Kaiserin Friedrich mit ihren Kindern.” – “Her Majesty Empress Frederick with her children.” The photograph brings together members of one of the most important dynastic families of late nineteenth-century Europe. At the centre, in Hussar uniform, stands her eldest son Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859–1941), the last German Emperor. Also portrayed are Princess Charlotte of Prussia (1860–1919); Prince Heinrich (Henry) of Prussia (1862–1929), later Grand Admiral of the Imperial German Navy; Princess Viktoria of Prussia (1866–1929); Princess Sophia of Prussia (1870–1932), future Queen of Greece; and Princess Margarethe of Prussia (1872–1954), later Princess of Hesse. Empress Frederick's two other sons, Princes Sigismund (1864–1866) and Waldemar (1868–1879), had died in childhood and are not present in the portrait. Victoria, Princess Royal, occupied a unique position linking the British and German royal houses: she was Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, wife of Emperor Frederick III and mother of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Frederick III reigned for only 99 days in 1888, after which his widow became known as Empress Frederick / Kaiserin Friedrich. Published by the Neue Photographische Gesellschaft A.G., Berlin-Steglitz. The postcard was postally used in 1901, retaining a German Reichspost 5 Pfennig postage stamp and contemporary postal cancellations. The markings indicate that it was mailed in May 1901, only a few months before Empress Frederick's death on 5 August of that year. The photographic side additionally bears an extensive contemporary handwritten message in German, extending along the margin and beneath the portrait; the reverse bears the recipient's address and postal markings. An evocative royal family postcard bringing together Queen Victoria's eldest daughter and her six surviving children, including the last German Emperor, a future Grand Admiral of the Imperial German Navy and a future Queen of Greece, postally used during the final months of Empress Frederick's life.