Re: [Leica] not Leica, but worth your attention - interesting story

[Gwpics@aol.com]

Brian

This site is simply amazing, thank you for pointing us to it.

As an aside, we visit a favourite hotel near Bath when we get the chance to 
escape the ratrace life. It is run by a couple, the wife of which is French 
and you get good home cooking and excellent wines. Last year she asked me if 
I could copy some photographs from the family album that she had managed to 
acquire from her mother in Paris for a short period, and we struck a deal 
where I would do the images in exchange for dinner, bed and breakfast for my 
wife and I. And then I looked at the album in more detail -

There were photographs of the Tsar and Tsarina playing with their children 
but they were 'family snaps' and not formal in any way. What is more they 
were hand signed by the Tsar in Russian with little messages. So I began 
asking questions and it turned out that whilst the woman was born in France 
her mother was Russian, and her grandfather was the Tsar's brother. The 
family were allowed out of Russia when the Revolution took place and they 
could tka eone suitcase each. The rather tatty album I had was the album of 
family photos that got put into that one suitcase. The messages read things 
like 'Happy Christmas to you all' and 'Here we are playing in the garden' etc.

The photographs must be priceless from the historical point of view, and I 
had the great pleasure of copying them.

Gerry

Gerry Walden (UK)
Corporate & Stock Photography
Tel: (0)23 8046 3076
Fax: (0)23 8034 8542