Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria of Russia in Uhlan chief uniform
Photography
Inventory number
2021.6.8.4.PH.VI.C1885.RUAuthor:
Wesenberg & Co (Russian, 1865 - 1912)Description
Carte de visite format photograph of the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (1853 – 1920), later Duchess of Edinburgh and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the fifth child and only surviving daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. She was the younger sister of Alexander III of Russia and the paternal aunt of Russia's last emperor, Nicholas II. In 1874 Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna married Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and she was the only ROMANOV to marry into the British royal family.On July 22, 1871, she was appointed chief of the 14th Yamburg Uhlan regiment, which was named from that time the 14th H.I.H. Grand-Duchess Maria Alexandrovna's Yamburg Uhlan Regiment.
Uhlans were initially Polish-Lithuanian light cavalry units armed with lance, sabre, and pistols. The title was later used by lancer regiments in French, Russian, Prussian, Saxon, Austro-Hungarian, and other armies. Uhlans typically wore a double-breasted jacket with a coloured panel at the front, a coloured sash, and a square-topped lancer cap. This cap or cavalry helmet was derived from a traditional design of Polish cap, made more formal and stylised for military use. Their lances usually had small, swallow-tailed flags (known as the lance pennon) just below the spearhead.
Materials
Analog photographyCardboard
Origin
circa 1885 Saint Petersburg, Russian EmpireDimensions
Length : 10.2 cmHeight : 6.2 cm