Getty Museum

Count Palffy

Disdéri & Cie.

Date

about 1860–1869

Medium

Albumen silver print

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

Object ID

039ae91c-02f5-4816-9f32-0e8a11c96361

This photograph sits in an album that intermixes pages of _cartes-de-visite_ with full-page photocollages. Victorian collagists took their photographic materials primarily from _cartes-de-visite_. Patented by André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854, the _carte-de-visite_ was easily and inexpensively printed ([84.XD.1157.2179](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/107JXY)). By the 1860s, _cartomania _had taken hold. It became customary to exchange _cartes-de-visite_ on social calls. These small studio portraits measure 3 ½ x 2 1/8 inches, about the size of a playing card. It is not known whether they removed the photographs from the thick cardstock on which they had been mounted or obtained unmounted prints from the photographer. People also collected cards of the royal family, actors, and politicians (see for example, the image of Princess Christina of the United Kingdom found in [this album](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/107NCC)). A woman’s collection of _cartes-de-visite_ visually displayed her social circle and favorite celebrities The _cartes-de-visite_ could be inserted in specially manufactured album pages that came with slots. These display pages might include painted ornamentation, as in [this one](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/107NDR?altImage=d5498717-61c5-4894-bac2-e5a320e738e3) from The Westmorland Album. Carolyn Peter, J. Paul Getty Museum, Department of Photographs 2021 For more information about this album see the [extended essay](https://museum-essays.getty.edu/photographs/cpeter-westmorland-album/).

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