ORIGINAL ANTIQUE ALBUMEN photograph c. 1890 - CLOCK TOWER & GREAT HALL, HAMPTON COURT by G.W. WILSON, No. 3758.
Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, 12 miles (19 kilometres) southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chief minister of Henry VIII. In 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the cardinal gave the palace to the king to check his disgrace. The palace went on to become one of Henry's most favoured residences; soon after acquiring the property, he arranged for it to be enlarged so that it might more easily accommodate his sizeable retinue of courtiers. Along with St James' Palace, it is one of only two surviving palaces out of the many the king owned. The palace is currently in the possession of King Charles III and the Crown.
George Washington Wilson (7 February 1823 – 9 March 1893) was a pioneering Scottish photographer. In 1849, he began a career as a portrait miniaturist, switching to portrait photography in 1852. He received a contract to photograph the Royal Family, working for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He pioneered various techniques for outdoor photography and the mass production of photographic prints as he gradually began to largely do landscape photography in the 1860s. By 1864 he claimed to have sold over half a million prints.
An albumen print was made by coating thin paper with a layer of egg-white (albumen) containing salt and sensitized with a silver nitrate solution, then printed using daylight under a negative. The resulting paper had a smooth surface with a fine sheen.
20 x 13.5 cm.
In excellent condition for an antique photograph.
The photograph is stored, and will be sold in, an archival plastic sleeve that is coated on the outside to retard the harmful effect of ultraviolet light with the inside layer made from an untreated material to ensure the sleeve is completely acid free.