Offered for sale by Adam Langlands of 'Shadowrock Rare Books' - for more information please contact him via email at adamlanglands@gmail.com 

The present album, an 1885 Christmas present from Caroline Leveson Gower, appears to have been by used by Harriet Mssenger to record the places she lived and /or visited as part of the household of diplomat Arthur Leveson Gower

Caroline Frederica Folijambe LEVESON GOWER (1850-1895). – Harriet ‘Gar’ MESSENGER (1848-1933, compiler).

[GERMANY, BAVARIA,  AUSTRIA, and elsewhere: An album containing 172 mounted photographs]. [Various places: 1881-1887]. Oblong folio (14 ½ x 10 3/8in; 368 x 164mm). 170 photographs (7 ¾ x 10ins and smaller), mounted recto and verso of 31 card leaves, preceded by a page bearing a large calligraphic presentation inscription ‘Christmas 1885 / Harriet Messenger / from / Caroline F. Leveson Gower’, in red and blue ink with one mounted photograph, and 1 final photograph laid down onto the rear free endpaper. Contemporary half morocco over cloth-covered boards (lightly scuffed and affected by damp). Provenance: Harriet ‘Gar’ MESSENGER (1848-1933, compiler).

Caroline Folijambe married  Arthur Leveson Gower on 4th August 1881. Arthur had joined the diplomatic service in 1876. At the time of his marriage he was 3rd Secretary in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he served until 1883. Subsequent postings included 2nd Secretary in Vienna, Austria, 1884; Berlin, Germany, 1885-1888; Berne, Switzerland, 1888-1892; Belgrade, Serbia, 1893; as Secretary of the Legation in Athens, Greece, 1895-1899; and as Chargé d'Affaires in the Hague, Holland, 1899-1905. He retired in 1908.

Harriet Messenger was known as ‘Gar’ by Caroline and her family. She appears to have been Caroline’s maid before she married and remained with her from 1881 until Caroline’s death in 1895. Harriet remained with the Leveson-Gowers after Caroline’s death as ‘companion and nanny’ until 1905.

The present album, an 1885 Christmas present from Caroline, appears to have been by used by Harriet Mssenger to record the places she lived and /or visited as part of the household of professional diplomat Arthur Leveson Gower: small image of the Royal Mail Steamship Trent (recalling the voyage from Southampton to Rio, dated October 1st 1881); 1 photo of Aqueduct Road, Rio de Janeiro, dated 1883; 12 photos of Venice [March 1885]; 4 photos of interiors of “Schwindegasse No. 6 Vienna” [1885], 26 general views of Vienna  [18 July 1884 to 22 July 1885], 5 photos of the Wiener Frohnleichnams Prozession (featuring the Emperor) [June 4th, 1885], 3 views of towns on the banks of the Danube [August 1884], 72 dated to 1885 and 1886 of various locations including in Dresden, Greifswald, Putbus, Bergen, Stralsund and  Berlin, also including 5 portraits (subjects include Bismarck and Friedrich III, Crown Prince of Germany). Also including a single view, of a celebration in Berlin,  dated March 22nd 1887,  then Potsdam Palace and Sans Souci, then 35 images of various places in Bavaria [August 1887] and the Tyrol [September 1887].