Michael Lehr Antiques
Live Auction

2026 European Photography Auction

Wed, Oct 28, 2026 01:00PM EDT
  2026-10-28 13:00:00 2026-10-28 13:00:00 America/New_York Michael Lehr Michael Lehr : 2026 European Photography Auction https://auction.michaellehrantiques.com/auctions/michael-lehr-antiques/2026-european-photography-auction-24401
Our October auction focuses on historic European photography, we are offering a curated collection of fine and erotic daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, CDV, cabinet cards, stereoviews, and a range of curious and uncommon nineteenth-century European vernacular material. At the center of the sale is a collection of images from the Paris Commune of 1871 and the surrounding “année terrible,” the year of war, siege, insurrection, and reprisal that reshaped France. The focus is on the people who drove those events and lived through their aftermath, and on the city that bore the damage.
Michael Lehr Antiques info@michaellehrantiques.com
Lot 190

CDV, Alexandra Princess of Wales, Le Jeune, Saint-Cloud, 1869

Estimate: $100 - $200
Starting Bid
$10

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$100 $10
$200 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
Alexandra, Princess of Wales (1844–1925), born Princess Alexandra of Denmark, married Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, in 1863, making her one of the most photographed royal figures of the Victorian era. This albumen carte de visite was produced by the Paris studio of Augustin Aimé Joseph Le Jeune, successor to Count Sergei Lvovich Levitsky at 22, rue de Choiseul, and is dated October 1869 at Saint-Cloud, placing it during a French imperial court visit.

The Princess is seated in three-quarter length against a softly painted atmospheric backdrop, wearing a full-skirted dark velvet gown with an elaborately embroidered bodice panel trimmed in light lace. A high black collar rises at the throat, and the sleeves terminate in wide lace cuffs adorned with a cluster of white fabric flowers tied with small dark ribbons. Her dark hair is styled in tight ringlet curls framing her face, and she holds a velvet accessory in her lap, her direct gaze calm and composed.

Le Jeune, active in Paris during the 1860s and 1870s, operated at 22, rue de Choiseul and carried the imperial warrant as photographer to His Imperial Highness the Prince Imperial, one of the most prestigious photographic appointments of the French Second Empire. The studio's royal and aristocratic clientele made it a leading address for formal portraiture in this period, and surviving examples of its work are held in major French national collections including the Musée d'Orsay.

The reverse bears a purple ink stamp reading "LE JEUNE / Photographe Breveté / de S.A. le Prince Impérial / St Cloud – Octobre 1869 / Ancienne Mon. Levitsky," and is inscribed in pencil at the upper edge "Princess of Wales" (Princess of Wales). A crown and ribbon device is printed on the recto mount below the image.

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We ship for free on combined lot values of $500 or higher in the United States. We will be traveling to Paris November 8-14th and can deliver any of our items at Paris Photo or the show on Saturday.