W. & D. Downey 1867, September Princess Alexandra with her daughter, Princess Louise
Carte de visite Paul Frecker Paul Frecker provides the following comments:
"A carte-de-visite showing Princess Alexandra with her daughter, Princess Louise, born in 1867. Taken in September 1868, it was intended to show that the Princess had fully recovered from the bout of rheumatic fever which had struck her in the late winter / early spring of 1867. It proved to be the most popular carte-de-visite of its day. In 1885 Downey remembered that somewhere in the region of 300,000 copies had been sold, and it's not hard to see why. Compared to the stiffness and formality of most portraiture at this time, and Royal portraiture in particular, the freshness and spontaneity is like a splash of cold water!"
