Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone

[Keith]

Great picture Eddie.

I'm guessing beings the Duchess of Coburg is not in the picture it would be sometime from the Teck engagement and prior to the Coburg engagment. Both ladies seem to be in black. Maybe someone knows also if they were in mourning for someone around the time of the Teck engagement.

[grandduchessella]

I've seen other photos from this sitting--individual or pairs, I didn't know it was a group shot like this. I don't believe that it was the engagement but I could be wrong. Alice and Alge were married February 1904 and were engaged Nov 1903. Charlie was married in Oct 1905. The photo was obviously in England but the mourning clothes throw me.     If it was soon after the wedding (March 1904) mourning could be for the Duke of Cambridge.

[Eddie_uk]

Thanks for the information!

Charles was very dashing!

[Alianna]

Love this one! Princess Alice with her mother, brother & husband!
Maybe an engagement portrait? Alice looks very young! I'm sure grandduchessella will know!!!  

Hello everyone:  this portrait is wonderful, to say the least!  I am not sure, but I wonder of the black dresses and whether they were the trend or fashion of that time?  I am guessing somewhere around 1910ish.  Please post any information on the significance of the necklace which looks like a coin and what it represents.  Also, the background of the photograph is interesting and I would like to know where that night be.

[Alianna]

Also, to GrandduchessElla, please explain why you think this photo was taken in England and (as it looks like they are in a castle) where!!

[Eddie_uk]

Alianna the photographer is a Richmond photographer which the Duchess of Albany appears to have used many times. As Richmond is towards Surrey where Claremont is situated that would be my guess for the location of the photograph! But we know photographers where prepared to travel for there Royal clientele

[Kalafrana]

If it was taken in a castle, then Windsor seems obvious. I will need to look up Alice's book, but she and Alexander of Teck got to know one another when he was stationed at Windsor and she and her mother were living, I think, in a house in Windsor Great Park. The Henry III Tower in Windsor Castle was also their first married home.

Ann

[grandduchessella]

Also, to GrandduchessElla, please explain why you think this photo was taken in England 

As Eddie wrote, the name of the photographer was a British one.

[Eddie_uk]

Under the entrance steps of Claremont is an arch, see below, perhaps it is the one we can see in the background of that group shot.

[B5218]

While the ladies in the photo appear to be dressed in mourning, might they be just wearing a dark color?  

[CountessKate]

While the ladies in the photo appear to be dressed in mourning, might they be just wearing a dark color? 

I wondered that.  Even if the Duchess of Albany wore black in perpetual mouring for the Duke (and I can't remember if she did, but she always appears in dark colours in photographs), Alice might have been in a dark colour as suggested; additionally, Charles' morning coat could have been black or a very dark grey which was just formal but ordinary wear for a gentleman and his waistcoat does not suggest the sobriety of mourning.

[Kalafrana]

Yes, Charles Edward's waistcoat is quite fancy - definitely not mourning! Alexander is wearing ordinary country tweeds - not mourning either.

Ann

[Eddie_uk]

Charles Edward is certainly very dashing!

[ashdean]

Charles Edward is certainly very dashing!

Charles Edward was indeed v dashing....very sad the direction his life took...

[ashdean]

While the ladies in the photo appear to be dressed in mourning, might they be just wearing a dark color? 

I wondered that.  Even if the Duchess of Albany wore black in perpetual mouring for the Duke (and I can't remember if she did, but she always appears in dark colours in photographs), Alice might have been in a dark colour as suggested; additionally, Charles' morning coat could have been black or a very dark grey which was just formal but ordinary wear for a gentleman and his waistcoat does not suggest the sobriety of mourning.

The Duchess certainly was not in black for life...though she may have worn the colours of half mourning...lilac,lavender,grey,white...Her daughter remembered the first time she saw her mother out of black (in a grey dress?) and how lovely she thought she looked!